LONDON, March 1 (Xinhua) -- A weekend of derbies following a week of drama awaits fans of the Premier League with the north-London derby and the Liverpool derby the main dishes on the menu.
Tottenham host Arsenal at Wembley on Saturday lunchtime after a week that has all but shot down their title challenge with defeats away to Burnley and Chelsea leaving them nine points behind Liverpool and eight behind Manchester City.
It was a good week for Arsenal, with two wins taking them to just four points of their rivals and giving Unai Emery a good chance of returning Arsenal to next season's Champions League.
The Liverpool derby takes place in Goodison where Everton will be boosted by Tuesday's win away to Cardiff City and an extra-24 hours to recover than their neighbors, who were back to their best on Wednesday with a 5-1 thumping of Watford.
The 233rd Merseyside derby will see Everton trying to turn the tide of recent history after failing to beat their city rivals in their last 18-attempts: a run which dates back to October 2010.
Everton may take some scant consolation from the fact that nine of the last 16 Premier League games between the two sides ended in draws, which shows that at times they have been close to that much-desired win, but often fate has smacked them in the face.
A perfect example of that was this season's first meeting ended in tragedy for Everton keeper Jordan Pickford, whose injury time error from a wickedly deflected shot gifted Divock Origi a late winner and left many Everton fans probably thinking that fate was against them.
However, Sunday is another day and even though Liverpool were formidable in midweek, Goodison Park will once again be filled with optimism that this time Everton can finally end their terrible run against their city rivals.
By the time Liverpool kick off, Manchester City could be back on top of the table if they win away to Bournemouth, who will look to improve after a 5-1 defeat to Arsenal in midweek.
Fernandinho and Aymeric Laporte will both be out for City, who will still be favorites for the all three points.
Manchester United overcame a long list of injuries to win away to Crystal Palace during the week and will expect to maintain their unbeaten domestic record at home to Southampton, who returned to winning ways at home to Fulham.
That defeat cost Claudio Ranieri his job at Fulham and Scott Parker will be in charge when they take on Chelsea (one of Parker's former clubs) in another weekend derby.
Fulham are 10 points from safety, but Chelsea appear to have taken strength from their Carabao Cup display against Manchester City (despite the Kepa Arrizabalaga incident) and they produced their best performances for a while to beat Tottenham in midweek.
Willy Caballero should continue in goal for Chelsea after keeping a clean sheet in that game as Kepa ponders the error of not accepting Maurizio Sarri's instructions from the comfort of the dugout.
Elsewhere Brighton need their first win since December 29th after nosediving deep into relegation trouble and Huddersfield should be the perfect rivals, expect Huddersfield won their first game in 15 attempts in midweek and have given themselves a morale boot.
Wolves aim to recover from their loss in Huddersfield when they entertain third from bottom Cardiff City.
Newcastle can just about assure survival if they win away to West Ham to make it three consecutive victories while Brendan Rodgers returns to coaching in the Premier League for his first game in charge as Leicester city visit Watford on Sunday.
