A look ahead to Sunday's fixtures in the Barclays Premier League.
Manchester United will be aiming to avoid a third successive defeat as they host Aston Villa.
United have not lost three league matches in a row for more than eight years since their 3-1 reverse at Arsenal in November 2001 was followed by home defeats against Chelsea (0-3) and West Ham United (0-1).
Now they are looking to bounce back to winning ways after being beaten 1-4 at Old Trafford by title rivals Liverpool and then 2-0 at Fulham.
Those set-backs have put Sir Alex Ferguson's men under pressure with Liverpool suddenly closing the gap.
However the Red Devils will have to cope without the suspended trio of Wayne Rooney, Nemanja Vidic and Paul Scholes as they take on a Villa side who have endured their own wobble.
Martin O'Neill's men have found themselves overhauled by Arsenal in the race for the fourth Champions League spot.
Villa have picked up just one point from their last five Barclays Premier League matches, a 2-2 draw at home to Stoke City who scored twice in the last two minutes to cancel out a two-goal deficit.
Their last outing saw them thumped 5-0 at Anfield where goalkeeper Brad Friedel was sent off, although the later rescinding of the red card means the American is clear to play at Old Trafford where Wilfred Bouma could return.
Beforehand, sixth-placed Everton take on Wigan Athletic who are seven points behind them and still harbouring hopes of catching the Merseysiders.
The Toffees need to bounce back from their 2-1 defeat at Portsmouth, only their second reverse in 18 league matches, having kept nine clean sheets in their previous 13 matches.
Wigan have to make a decision on striker Amr Zaki who has been disciplined after reporting back late from international duty with Egypt where he is understood to have suffered a hamstring injury.
(From Website : http://www.premierleague.com/page/Headlines/0,,12306~1611199,00.html)
