There can be no question that when Leeds United appointed Marcelo Bielsa as manager last summer, it was with the sole intention of taking the club back to the Premier League for the first time since the 2003/04 season.

So far that appointment looks to have been inspired, but with ten games to go, it feels like this is the stretch of the season where Bielsa needs to really come into his own.

For the first time since returning to the Championship from League One in 2010, Leeds find themselves in contention for the automatic promotion places heading into the final exchanges of the season, meaning that Bielsa has already navigated a big hurdle often placed in front of those in the Elland Road dugout.

So often in recent Leeds seasons, poor runs at one point or another have killed off the club's hopes of automatic promotion before the final season had even entered its final stages.

It briefly looked as though that would be the case again this time around at the turn of the year, when seven straight league wins gave way to just two wins and four defeats in six.

Bielsa however rallied his side, and while stepping up to take responsibility for the spygate controversy that surrounded the meeting with Derby midway through that run, brought an end to that run to win four of the next five, and put automatic promotion back in his side's hands.

Now however is when the pressure is really applied, and the next two games in the space of just five days indicate the variety of challenges the philosophical Argentine still has to overcome.

Tuesday night sees them travel to an improving Reading side still fighting for survival at the wrong end of the table, before Sheffield United, the side bearing down just two points behind Leeds in third make to the short trip to Elland Road on Saturday.

It is runs of games like these that Bielsa will have to draw on his meticulous preparation and insight to negotiate in order to find the necessary balance of taking the points and maintaining his squads ability to again just days later.

But if there is one manager who has shown us that he has the ability and determination to do just that, then thankfully for Leeds, it is Marcelo Bielsa.