Stoke City find themselves in relegation trouble with just 9 league games left to play, but the Potters have shown some good form recently and they could survive relegation after all. However, they would need to find a way to get a point against this Manchester City team here first. They drew their last league game against fellow strugglers, Southampton, a result that means they are now winless in 5 games. More positively, they have lost only one of their last 6 games, they still remain inside the bottom 3 and they still have matches against Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs before the season ends. Manchester City lost their first home game in midweek against FC Basel, but it was a heavily rotated team which fell 2-1 to the Swiss side. They qualified for the next round of the Champions League anyway thanks to a 4-0 win in the first leg. They still have a 16 points advantage over Manchester United in the Premier League race and they are on the brink of winning the title with games to spare. Their form at the turn of this new year has not been very good, especially away from home and they could fail to get all three points here again.

Bournemouth have been inconsistent this season, but their recent form has been impressive and although they are not yet clear from relegation troubles, they would be looking to build on their recent form until the end of the season. In their last match against Leicester they were denied a win by a late Riyad Mahrez strike, they are still a tough side to beat at the moment as they have lost just once in their last 10 Premier League games, winning four and drawing five including wins at Chelsea and against Arsenal.  They, however, can’t keep out opponents as they have not kept a clean sheet in their last 8 home games. Tottenham would be looking to get over their 2-1 home loss to Juventus on Wednesday, that loss ended a run of 17 games without defeat for the Lilywhites and would surely have affected their confidence a  little. They have kept only one clean sheet in their last 6 away game, although they have scored in all of their last 12 games on the road. Spurs have a good record against the Cherries with 5 wins and a draw from their last 6 meetings.

Manchester United host in Liverpool in one of the most important North East derby in recent seasons as both teams play for the points that could see either of them end up in the top two. Manchester United head into this game on the back to two successive league wins against Chelsea and Crystal Palace while Liverpool head here fresh from qualifying for the quarterfinals of the Champions League. The Red Devils are 4 games without a loss heading into this match, while Liverpool have lost just one of their last 20 Premier League games. Manchester United are 2 points better than the Reds and just 4 points ahead of Tottenham who are 4th on the league table. Liverpool have won 8 of their last 10 league games and seven of their last 10 away league games have also ended in wins for Jurgen Klopp’s men. However, they are looking to become only the second team to win Manchester United at home as the Red Devils have lost just one league game at Old Trafford this season and they have 11 wins from 14 there.

Bayer won their last league game against Wolfsburg 2-1 to return to winning ways as they look to get back into the top four ahead of next season. They are on the up as a club as evident by the fact that they have already collected the same number of points (41) this season as the did in the whole of last season. Furthermore, the trio of Dominik  Kohr, Panos Retsos, and Leon Bailey should be back in contention for this game. First two were suspended for the last game while the latter was rested. Gladbach drew their last game 2-2 against Werder Bremen, but they would take positives from the fact that they are now unbeaten in their last two games for the first time in 4 months. They are just 4 points away from a European place, but their treatment room is still busy with key players like Fabian Johnson and Ibrahima Traore still out injured. Leverkusen have failed to find the back of the net in 3 of their last 5 league matches and they have just 2 wins from their last 7 home league games, losing on 3 occasions.

Mainz 05 are getting better and they have begun getting some good results as they look to survive relegation. After winning 0-2 at Berlin, they have drawn their last two games against Wolfsburg and Hamburg to take themselves 7 points clear of the automatic relegation spot – but they are still in a relegation playoff spot. Prior to their last 3 games, they lost 3 consecutive matches and they would be careful not to fall to a defeat here again. Schalke got their 4th win of the year against a very stubborn Hertha Berlin side last weekend to boost their chances of making it to next season’s Champions League. Add that to equally impressive wins against Hoffenheim and Bayer Leverkusen earlier in the year and you would feel they have what it takes to take all three points here. Guido Burgstaller – their top scorer, could miss this game, but they have enough options to fill that void. They have just one win in their last 3 visits here, losing the rest.