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Sports

Heavyweights prepared for battle at Stamford Bridge

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

London, England – The top-two teams in the English Premier League will square off at Stamford Bridge on Sunday as leaders Chelsea get set to host Manchester United.

Both sides are coming off of Champions League ties during the week; Manchester United came away from Old Trafford with a 3-2 win against Braga, while Chelsea fell 2-1 at Shakhtar Donetsk.

Javier Hernandez made the most of rare start on Tuesday by scoring a brace against Braga, giving manager Sir Alex Ferguson a selection conundrum ahead of a vital Premier League clash.

"It's a good problem to have," said Sir Alex. "I don't always enjoy it [telling players they're not playing] but it has to be done. In fairness to all the players they've accepted it well and adapted to it. I don't have any great problems other than having to tell one or two of them they're not playing.

"Chicha was tremendous the other night. He's a really terrific player and such a dedicated footballer and professional in every training session. He's improving - that's the good thing about him."

Chelsea, meanwhile, suffered its first European loss under manager Roberto Di Matteo on Tuesday. Defender Branislav Ivanovic believes that the Blues must show more focus ahead of Sunday's tilt with the Red Devils.

"We need to improve our concentration and be focused on the whole 90 minutes," Ivanovic .

"We conceded from the first chance and it made it much more difficult for us afterwards to play the game we wanted. We have to analyze it and see where we can improve."

A win for United would spoil Chelsea's unbeaten record to move the Red Devils to within a point of the league-leaders.

In Sunday's other massive fixture, Everton will host Liverpool at Goodison Park in the latest installment of the fabled Merseyside derby.

Liverpool is unbeaten in its last three Premier League matches to rise to 12th place in the table, while Everton's five-game unbeaten has the Toffees sitting fourth.

Also on Sunday, Southampton welcomes Tottenham to St. Mary's and Newcastle hosts West Bromwich at the Sports Direct Arena.

On Saturday, Arsenal will look to overturn its loss at Norwich City when it hosts QPR in a London derby, Reading welcomes Fulham to the Madejski, Stoke City hosts Sunderland at the Britannia, Wigan faces West Ham at the DW Stadium, Norwich City heads to Villa Park to take on Aston Villa, and Manchester City faces Swansea City at the Etihad.