After two wins on the bounce and six wins in their last nine games, it's fair to say that Derby County are well and truly in the mix for automatic promotion this term.

The Rams are up to fourth in the Sky Bet Championship table after a comfortable 1-0 victory away at Wigan Athletic last weekend, and Frank Lampard's side currently find themselves five points off Leeds United.

It's going to be a tough run-in for Derby, though, they're still yet to play arch rivals Nottingham Forest both home and away, and have to cope with a hectic winter period, which can often make or break a team's season.

You'll struggle to find a Championship season where the play-off positions are as tight as they are now - just five points separate third and eighth position, so Derby have got to be at their best for the remainder of the campaign.

Here, we take a look at THREE reasons why Derby are Norwich City and Leeds' biggest threats in the race for automatic promotion...

Derby are impressive at Pride Park - they have lost just two out of 10 games at home and very rarely drop points having won six games this term in front of their own crowd.

Away from home, Derby are also very impressive. They have had to stand still and grind out some fantastic results at the likes of Wigan Athletic, West Brom and Sheffield Wednesday - as well as beating Manchester United in the Carabao Cup at Old Trafford.

People say that if you win your home games and pick up points away from home then that's a good recipe for promotion, however, Derby are winning both home and away.

One thing that you can say about Derby is that they love scoring goals. They have scored 31 in the league thus far and haven't showed signs of stopping just yet.

Perhaps the most pleasing aspect from Lampard's perspective is that the goals come from every area on the pitch - striker Jack Marriott and winger Harry Wilson are joint-top goalscorers with eight goals, but the Rams have had 13 different goalscorers in their team this season.

To have a goalscoring threat in each area of your team is a very dangerous asset to have, and the Rams can hurt a few teams.

It was obvious that Lampard was going to use his links at Chelsea, as well as in the Premier League, to sign some players on loan.

The likes of Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Harry Wilson have all been superb since arriving from Chelsea and Liverpool respectively, whilst Jack Marriott has stepped up from League One and Mason Bennett has emerged from the youth ranks to become a star under Lampard.

But, one thing that is particularly good about Derby is that as well as having all of these fantastic young players, they have some key experienced players - the likes of Tom Huddlestone, David Nugent, Scott Carson and Richard Keogh are all important in different areas of the pitch.