The stakes could not be higher for Manchester United and Chelsea tomorrow night as they return to Premier League action following surprise setbacks in cup competitions.
Chelsea were held 1-1 at home by League One side Southend in the FA Cup and then United, who had no problem progressing in that competition against Southampton, lost at Championship outfit Derby in their midweek League Cup semi-final first leg.
The big guns have a second chance to get the right result in those ties, but there will be no such escape clause in tomorrow's crucial league showdown. By kick-off at Old Trafford, Liverpool could be six points clear at the top, which will crank up the pressure on United and Chelsea to take three points.
Neither team goes into the Old Trafford clash in top form. United are unbeaten in seven league matches since their 2-1 defeat at Arsenal two months ago, but they have scored more than once in just one of those seven games, even though six of the opponents are in the bottom eight.
Chelsea started well under Luiz Felipe Scolari, but their progress has stalled in the past two months. They have won only three of their last eight league games - two of them against bottom club West Brom - and their only similar run of results in the past 41/2 seasons was the sequence early last season that led to the departure of Jose Mourinho and continued into the early games of Avram Grant's brief reign.
Scolari earned plaudits for the exciting football his team produced in the first three months of the season, but he has been struggling to get Chelsea to win ugly in the manner that Mourinho perfected during his championship-winning seasons at Stamford Bridge.