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Featured Sport News

All at stake in top-flight

Author: Rose Young
Date: 10/04/2009

After a thrilling week of European football, the focus will once again be on the Premier League this weekend as the battle for honours and survival hots up.

With just seven rounds of fixtures left almost half of the league still harbour relegation fears, while three teams are still in the battle for the title.

Manchester United's long run without letting in a goal now seems a long time ago. They have conceded ten goals in their last four matches and looked particularly fragile during Tuesday's 2-2 Champions League draw with FC Porto.

United need to win at Sunderland to silence the critics and online betting experts who think their heavy schedule is starting to catch up with them.

Sunderland are desperate for points at the other end of the table though having failed to win any of their last six matches, scoring only two goals in the process.

Chelsea plan to keep hopes of a third Premier League title in five years alive by beating a revitalised Bolton Wanderers side at Stamford Bridge.

Guus Hiddink has guided the Blues to five victories in their last six league matches and the midweek Champions League victory at Liverpool shows that they are hitting top form at just the right time.

Liverpool have the perfect chance to bounce back after Wednesday's Anfield humbling by beating a Blackburn side that are struggling to extricate themselves from relegation trouble.

Rafa Benitez's side are searching for their fifth successive league victory as they try to keep the pressure on United.

Arsenal aim to extend their unbeaten league run to 18 matches when they entertain a Wigan team that showed in the defeat at Everton that they could already be thinking about their summer holidays.

Aston Villa's desperate run of form means Sunday's game against Everton sees them attempting to hold on to fifth place rather than challenging Arsenal for fourth.

Since winning 2-0 at Blackburn, Villa have failed to taste victory in any of their last nine matches in all competitions and have lost their last four league games, conceding 12 goals in the process.

In the battle to avoid the drop only a victory will do for Middlesbrough when they entertain Hull City while Portsmouth can ease their own drop fears by beating doomed West Brom at Fratton Park.

Newcastle United need to dent Stoke City's excellent home record if they are to improve their chances of avoiding dropping out of English football's top-flight for the first time since 1993.

The Magpies are three points away from safety and have managed to win only six of their 31 Premier League fixtures to date, being victorious on their travels just twice.

Stoke have tasted defeat at the Britannia Stadium only three times this term and just once - to Manchester United on Boxing Day - since September.

In the race to clinch a place in next season's Europa League, Manchester City play Fulham at Eastlands while Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp faces one of his former sides, West Ham United, at White Hart Lane.

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