EPL: Relegation and Title Battlers Meet

Birmingham v Aston Villa

Birmingham City welcome Aston Villa in a fixture that has not ended up well for the former in the last three attempts. Villa have won at St Andrews for the last three times without exception. They are once again the favourites for the match, even though Birmingham managed to upset the local town rivals in the Carling Cup this season. Aston Villa will be usually fighting for the Europa League places when visiting their local rivals, but this time, both teams find themselves in a relegation battle.

Aston Villa seem to have worsened with the arrival of Gerrard Houllier. The politics amongst the players seem to be the talking point and it is rumoured that many players are unhappy with the training methods of Houllier.

For Alex McLeish though, it is a case of goal scoring crisis and over reliance on the goals from Lee Bowyer and Cameron Jerome has meant that the team has performed well below their expectations. Birmingham City proved to be the surprise package of last season, but this season they are anything but that. However, Alex McLeish recently signed David Bentley on loan from Tottenham and he just could prove to be the missing link for scoring goals.
Birmingham - Aston Villa kicks off at 13:00 CET at the St Andrew's stadium

Sunderland v Newcastle

Nothing except revenge will be on Steve Bruce's mind after he will be looking to get back one over Newcastle United for the 5-1 thrashing that they suffered at St James's Park earlier in the season. Even though Bruce supported Newcastle as a fan in his youth, sentiments will be the last thing that will come to his mind.

It was Chris Hughton who guided the team to such an emphatic result, but it is Alan Pardew who is in charge of the club now. Even though the fans did not accept the change immediately, Pardew has proven to be reasonably successful in the half a dozen games or so that he has managed.

Newcastle thrashed West Ham by five goals a fortnight ago and that has really changed the complexion towards Alan Pardew. However, it will count for nothing if he suffers a defeat at the hands of arch rivals Sunderland.

Andy Carroll will not be present for Newcastle, even though he set this game as a target for returning to first-team action. Alan Pardew though will be having Shola Ameobi deputising for him. Shola Ameobi is considered to be a thorn by Sunderland supporters after he has scored plenty of goals against them.
Sunderland - Newcastle kicks off at 13:00 CET at the Stadium of Light

Liverpool v Everton

It is not long ago that this game would have been one of the fiercest local derbies that had huge stakes. Even though the ferocity has not gone away, the stakes have. Both teams are struggling at the foot of the table and are trying to avoid relegation.

Liverpool's situation seems even stranger considering the finances and quality of players at their disposal. It is certainly not often that we see Liverpool struggling at the bottom of the table after Christmas. In fact, their current points tally has been the worst for more than fifty years.

Liverpool fans would have certainly hoped for better after Kenny Dalglish took over from Roy Hodgson. However, things have not turned as they hoped for after they suffered consecutive defeats. Even though the defeat against Manchester United was not bad, the midweek defeat against Blackpool was probably the worst point in the club's history.

Everton usually enjoy a much better second half of the season, but it is yet to materialise this season. There were signs of it in the match against Tottenham and David Moyes will be looking to continue that against their arch rivals as well. Everton will be without Phil Jagielka and Tim Cahill, while Liverpool will be missing both home grown boys, Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard.
Liverpool - Everton kicks off at 15:05 CET at Anfield Road

Tottenham v Man Utd

This is one of the sterner tests for Sir Alex Ferguson in his quest to make Manchester United only the second club in the Premier League to go through the entire season without a league defeat. Harry Redknapp has been speaking in the pre-match press conference about the need to stop Manchester United from winning again. He said that if Manchester United wins the match, then they will just cruise to the title.

Manchester United currently lead the Premiership by just two points, but they have two games in hand over nearest competitors Manchester City. Hence, Harry Redknapp claims that allowing Manchester United to win this game would almost hand them the title.

So, one can expect Spurs to put up a sterner fight at White Hart Lane. In fact, every top four side that visits the White Hart Lane do not always go back with three points. Such is the home form of Tottenham that this game could be the potential match for the first defeat for United this season. Manchester United, however, received a huge boost ahead of this game after Ferguson confirmed that Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic will be taking part after recovering from their injuries.
Tottenham - Man Utd kicks off at 17:10 CET at White Hart Lane

Xavier - mysportshub.co.uk