EPL Table: Key Fixtures Promising Biggest Premier League Impact This Weekend

As the end of the 2014-15 Premier League campaign comes within sight, every point becomes all the more precious, and this weekend brings with it another opportunity to inspire change in the English top flight.

Sunday's Manchester derby will naturally court a huge amount of attention in Week 32, with United and City separated by a single point and each seeking to steal a march over their bitter rival in the top-four hunt.

The battle against relegation is another contentious arena, however, and Queens Park Rangers will look to reverse the odds at Loftus Road on Sunday, where they face league leaders Chelsea in a derby of their own.

Read on for discussion of those matchups that have potential for huge table impact this weekend, with the winners promising to reap major rewards.

Date	Time	Home	VS.	Away
Saturday, April 11	12:45 p.m. BST/7:45 a.m. ET	Swansea City	vs.	Everton
Saturday, April 11	3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. ET	Southampton	vs.	Hull City
Saturday, April 11	3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. ET	Tottenham Hotspur	vs.	Aston Villa
Saturday, April 11	3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. ET	Sunderland	vs.	Crystal Palace
Saturday, April 11	3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. ET	West Brom	vs.	Leicester City
Saturday, April 11	3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. ET	West Ham	vs.	Stoke City
Saturday, April 11	5:30 p.m. BST/12:30 p.m. ET	Burnley	vs.	Arsenal
Sunday, April 12	1:30 p.m. BST/8:30 a.m. ET	QPR	vs.	Chelsea
Sunday, April 12	4 p.m. BST/11 a.m. ET	Manchester United	vs.	Manchester City
Monday, April 13	8 p.m. BST/3 p.m. ET	Liverpool	vs.	Newcastle United

R	Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Chelsea	30	21	7	2	63	26	+37	70
2	Arsenal	31	19	6	6	62	32	+30	63
3	Manchester United	31	18	8	5	55	28	+27	62
4	Manchester City	31	18	7	6	63	30	+33	61
5	Liverpool	31	16	6	9	45	36	+9	54
6	Tottenham	31	16	6	9	50	45	+5	54
7	Southampton	31	16	5	10	42	22	+20	53
8	Swansea	31	13	7	11	37	39	-2	46
9	West Ham	31	11	9	11	41	39	+2	42
10	Stoke	31	12	6	13	35	39	-4	42
11	Crystal Palace	31	10	9	12	38	42	-4	39
12	Everton	31	9	10	12	39	42	-3	37
13	Newcastle United	31	9	8	14	33	49	-16	35
14	West Bromwich Albion	31	8	9	14	28	43	-15	33
15	Sunderland	31	5	14	12	24	44	-20	29
16	Aston Villa	32	7	8	17	23	45	-22	29
17	Hull	31	6	10	15	29	43	-14	28
18	Queens Park Rangers	32	7	5	20	38	58	-20	26
19	Burnley	31	5	11	15	26	49	-23	26
20	Leicester	30	5	7	18	29	49	-20	22

Manchester United vs. Manchester City

Having suffered a 1-0 defeat at Etihad Stadium earlier this term, Louis van Gaal's Manchester United are looking to make amends at Old Trafford in arguably their most important match of the campaign to date.

In what will be his first Manchester derby at the Theatre of Dreams, Van Gaal has fittingly talked of fantasising over a triumph this Sunday, per the Red Devils' official Twitter account:

After winning their last three games in a row, Manchester United look to be in better shape than their local foes and can open up a four-point gap over the Citizens should they rake in three points this weekend.

However, they'll have to do so without the services of Robin van Persie, who returned to training this week but has been declared unfit to feature against Manuel Pellegrini's men:

Pellegrini is hoping to lead his side to a bounce-back result against United after seeing his City team fall to a 2-1 defeat at Selhurst Park on Monday, a result that could see the club topple out of the top four.

It's likely that leading scorer Sergio Aguero will be key in any hopes City might have of overturning fortunes to clinch a win on Sunday, and the official Premier League Twitter account reveals the Argentinian is on the cusp of a substantial accolade:

That being said, Aguero hasn't been able to lay his usual marker in the Premier League of late, scoring just three goals in his last 11 domestic outings and failing to score in his last five.

Should City manage a victory, their bid to retain the Premier League title may retain a slight glimmer of hope. Fail, and the Red Devils can hope to move into the top two.

West Ham United vs. Stoke City

If the Manchester derby looks a clutch fixture with the two sides sat just a point apart, then Saturday's contest between West Ham United and Stoke City, level on points, looks that much tighter in comparison

The Hammers, ninth, have claimed just a single victory from their last 10 games to mount pressure on the shoulders of manager Sam Allardyce, whose position at Upton Park remains uncertain, per ESPN UK:

Stoke are in a similar—albeit nowhere near as dire—patch of form, having lost their last three fixtures on the trot but managing a three-win streak prior to the current slump.

For forward Jonathan Walters, the dip in form has gone on long enough, and the Republic of Ireland international told the Potters' official website he's eager to start moving up the table once again:

"

It has been a nice week of warm weather training. 

Everyone seems to be fit and healthy so it's going well and hopefully we'll come out all guns blazing against West Ham.

We need to get back to winning ways on Saturday off the back of three defeats. Chelsea was always going to be a difficult game and I think we gave a good account of ourselves. 

I'd rather have got the result and had a bad performance but we can take certain patterns of play out of the Chelsea game and take them into the West Ham game. We've had good results there before so hopefully we get the win and leap-frog them into ninth.

"

Were it not for a freak mistake courtesy of goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, Mark Hughes' men may have even claimed a shock result at Stamford Bridge last time out, but it wasn't meant to be.

That fixture may have been beyond their means, but victory in East London on Saturday is far more realistic, and both teams' bids to muster as high a finish as possible can receive a huge spring in Week 32.