Preston North End v Leeds United: Ipswich Town were a perfect pick-me-up for Whites, they must not do same for Preston

Leeds have been pretty good at dealing with defeat this season, just as they been have at beating the big boys – three wins out of three against the top two – but this is not cup football, the Championship grind is about relentlessly maintaining standards against the lesser lights too and, as manager Daniel Farke put it, handling statement victories such as Saturdays like winners.

On paper, everything will be in Leeds' favour in the early Boxing Day kick-off.

Whereas the Lilywhites have lost five of their last seven matches, Leeds buried any doubts thrown up by defeat at Sunderland and a draw with Coventry City by not just beating but marmailising one of 2023’s most impressive teams in English football on Saturday.

If Carlsberg did pre-Christmas victories, they would not look much different to a 4-0 home win over a side in the automatic promotion places, 10 points ahead at kick-off with such efficiency that a side that had been looking a touch jaded lately – and it was the same XI held by Coventry – could be refreshed by five substitutes in the half-hour with absolutely no threat to the three points.

It took just eight minutes for Pascal Struijk to head the ball home after Vaclav Hladky's excellent save from Joel Piroe and if the win was not yet secure going into the break at 2-0, Crysencio Summerville's 45th-minute penalty ensured the Ipswich fans had come an awfully long way for nothing.

Not that they needed telling, but Leeds fans were quite right to point out to them, "You should have gone Christmas shopping."

Yes, it really was so bad for them that even the hell of whatever is their local shopping centre on the Saturday before Christmas would have been preferable.

From there the home players were professional – “mature”, said Farke – ensuring ex-Barnsley forward Conor Chaplin's shot against the post just after Leif Davis got his feet tangled and put through his own net on his old ground 25 minutes in, was Ipswich's last of the game.

There was no going through the motions on the resumption, Piroe hitting the crossbar after just three minutes, then rounding off a move less impressive for the passing in the build-up, more the way Archie Gray, Georginio Rutter and the scorer hunted down the ball. Rutter hit the bar too, in the 71st minute.

Farke was professional too. Getting tired of talking about fatigue, his teamsheet hinted at the pig-headedness many top managers have but he rolled on Willy Gnonto, Ilia Gruev, Junior Firpo, Patrick Bamford and Mateo Joseph for the final 30 minutes and watched them keep the standards up.

Even with Jaidon Anthony ill and Luke Ayling's knee problem putting him alongside Sam Byram on the injured list, their depth is formidable.

But three days later in Lancashire comes another test, then one at West Bromwich Albion on Friday, then another at home to Birmingham City on Monday.

The fixture list is the handicap system which makes the Championship so crazily competitive – “We have to go more or less three weeks with a day off," warned a "privileged", not pouting Farke – so Leeds will need to be right behind the ears if they are not to slip up at Deepdale.

"The three points on Saturday won't help at all at Preston because they play a completely different style of football," warned the manager.

"It's no coincidence to me that they had such an impressive start to the season because especially at home they play with lots of intensity and physicality, pretty direct and aggressive and you have to be ready for the battle.

"Especially at home and after a few poor results they will be even more on it because they know with a good performance, a good result against Leeds United, they can win their momentum back."

Preston will be the footballing equivalent of the morning after the night before and even if Leeds are not as razor sharp and hungry as at the weekend, they still have a job to do. With Ipswich hosting Leicester City in the evening, they will kick themselves if they are not closer to at least one of the front-runners.

"After an impressive day like Saturday it's important you handle it in the right way, this is what winners do – to react after a setback and make sure they are on the same level after an impressive game like Saturday,” said Farke.

"You can't always expect it's going to be another game where we were already 3-0 up at half-time and everything looks easy and you keep your opponents down.

"Preston on the road could be a hard-fought game and sometimes you have to be happy with just a point on the road; we can't produce that sort of performance 46 times, this is not the Championship.

"But I want to see us really focussed and concentrated."