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Premier League preview: A statistical look at all this weekend's games: West Ham United v Tottenham Hotspur; Aston Villa v Hull City; Manchester United v Sunderland; Arsenal v West Brom; Chelsea v Norwich City; Crystal Palace v Liverpool

Providers of the largest online database for detailed football statistics WhoScored.com preview all of the matches in matchround 37 of the Premier League

Alistair Tweedale
Friday 02 May 2014 15:17 BST
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West Ham and Tottenham play their final London derby of the season in Saturday's early kick off this weekend, with the Hammers having gained only 1 point from their last 6 games against the capital's other sides. They have only taken 7 points from a possible 27 in London derbies this season, but will take confidence from the fact that three of those were gained in arguably their best performance of the season; a convincing 3-0 win at White Hart Lane in October.

Inconsistent Aston Villa host Hull but may well be looking to their remaining games against Manchester City and Tottenham - which are more difficult on paper - for the vital points they need to beat the drop. Villa have taken points off the league's big sides this season, and if results against the top 4 were discounted, Paul Lambert's side would be joint-bottom of the league, with just 25 points.

Ryan Giggs takes charge of his second game as Manchester United manager, this time up against a Sunderland side who have taken points off Chelsea, Manchester City and Cardiff in recent weeks. Connor Wickham will be a real threat, with 5 goals in his last 3 matches making him the Premier League's top scorer in March.

Newcastle's woes continued with a resounding and lifeless 3-0 defeat at the Emirates on Monday night that extended their losing streak to 6 matches. They have now lost 6 consecutive matches, giving them the worst current run of form of all 98 teams in the top 5 leagues across Europe.

Stoke's fantastic run of form was brought to an end by Tottenham last time out as they lost by a goal to nil. Each of their last 3 meetings with this week's opponents Fulham have ended with the home side winning by that exact scoreline, so they could get back to winning ways here.

Southampton and Swansea are both assured of safety but have little to aim for in terms of moving up the table. They rank first and second in the top flight for possession with 58.5% and 58.1% respectively, and possibly need to work on converting passes into goals ahead of next season.

Everton host Manchester City needing nothing less than a win to maintain any hope of stealing fourth place from Arsenal while the visitors need a victory to keep alive their title aspirations. City have lost each of their last 4 games at Goodison Park, last winning there in 2009 when Robinho and Stephen Ireland were their goalscorers.

Arsenal host a West Brom side that are almost certain of safety after beating West Ham last time out and may pose little threat to the Gunners, who themselves are 17 games unbeaten on home soil and will guarantee a top-4 finish with a win. They have won all but 2 of their home games against the Baggies in the Premier League era and should get 3 more points this week.

Jose Mourinho's incredible unbeaten home run with Chelsea was ended at 77 matches with defeat to Sunderland last time out, but they bounced back with a win at Anfield that meant they are still clinging to their faint title hopes. Having won and scored at least 3 goals in each of their last 5 home games against Norwich, they could push the Canaries to the very brink of relegation.

When Crystal Palace against Liverpool rolls around, the Reds will know whether their rivals Everton have done them a favour against Manchester City. Either way, they will need to beat a stubborn Eagles side who have pulled off some remarkable results since Tony Pulis took over. Their defence has improved vastly, with only Chelsea (14) and Arsenal (12) having kept more clean sheets than them since Pulis came into the job.

@alitweedale

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