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Title rivals face crunch clash

Author: Rose Young
Date: 31/01/2010
Football betting

The undoubted Premier League clash of the weekend sees title rivals Arsenal square up to Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

With the Gunners sitting in third place and United in second, this promises to be a mouth-watering showdown between two of the most successful sides in the history of the Premier League.

United should go into the game in confident mood after seeing off Manchester City in the Carling Cup semi-final on Wednesday night to ensure their safe passage to meet Aston Villa in next month's final at Wembley, which they are the online favourites to win.

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The Gunners are unbeaten in their previous ten Premier League games and have notched seven wins in this sequence scoring an impressive 23 times.

Sir Alex Ferguson's Red Devils are in fine touch on the domestic front themselves. Since their demoralising 3-0 defeat at Fulham in mid-December, they have won four and drawn one of their last five matches.

Arsene Wenger's youthful squad may be lacking as a few injuries are biting into his plans. Fran Merida (ankle) and Abou Diaby (calf) are both big doubts for the hosts with long-term injury victims Robin Van Persie (ankle), Johan Djourou (knee) and Kieran Gibbs (metatarsal) still some way off figuring for the title pretenders.

Thomas Vermaelen and Eduardo hobbled out of their midweek stalemate at Aston Villa and both are highly unlikely to be ready for the weekend action.

Sunday's other game sees Manchester City host rock-bottom Portsmouth.

The Citizens had a midweek break from Premier League action but there was no escaping from their red hot Carling Cup semi-final clash against city rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Roberto Mancini took his men to his fierce rivals with a slender 2-1 lead from the first-leg and United put themselves in firm control in the second half of Wednesday's showdown.

Goals from Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick looked set to send them to Wembley, but up popped Carlos Tevez to score a fantastic effort to level the aggregate score.

However, Wayne Rooney, who threatened for much of the night, headed a last-gasp winner to send United to the final at City's expense and they now need to pick themselves up for the weekend.

Avram Grant's beleaguered Pompey side secured a 1-1 draw against fellow strugglers West Ham United on Tuesday at Fratton Park and they once again showed their new-found resilience after going behind.

An ugly Matthew Upson goal looked set to plunge the south coast side into further misery although a late Danny Webber effort restored parity as they claimed a priceless point.

City will be without three long-term knee victims on Sunday, while Robinho has made his exit by heading home to rejoin Santos on a six-month loan.

Wayne Bridge is nearing fitness but the game is expected to come too soon for the England international, with Joleon Lescott out until next month and Michael Johnson missing for the rest of the season. Roque Santa Cruz (calf) is also ruled out until the end of February.

Portsmouth's Papa Bouba Diop (hamstring) is likely to be ruled out with Nadir Belhadj, Hassan Yebda (both Algeria) and Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria) on international duty at the Africa Cup of Nations.

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