Emmanuel Adebayor is in contention to face his old side Arsenal on Sunday after scoring a hat-trick for Manchester City against Lech Poznan on Thursday.
The Togolese made himself unpopular with fans of his old club in 2009 when, shortly after signing for City, he sprinted the length of the pitch to celebrate a goal in front of the visiting Arsenal supporters.
He has rarely started this season and has not managed a Premier League goal but manager Roberto Mancini could unleash him against the Gunners in a second-versus-third clash.
"He's scored a hat-trick and he has a good chance of playing against Arsenal," Mancini told City's website. "He gave an excellent performance. It was very important for us and for him. A striker needs to score goals and he scored three."
Third-placed Arsenal will have right back Bacary Sagna available for Sunday's clash at Eastlands while skipper Cesc Fabregas is back for domestic action after returning from a hamstring injury in the 5-1 Champions League defeat of Shakhtar Donetsk in midweek.
Keeper Manuel Almunia is still ruled out while defender Laurent Koscielny has a minimal chance of playing because of back trouble, manager Arsene Wenger told the club's website.
Aston Villa full-back Luke Young will miss his side's trip to Sunderland on Saturday after tearing a hamstring, manager Gerard Houllier said on Friday.
Young sustained the injury the day before Villa's 0-0 draw with Chelsea last week and scans showed he will need three weeks to recover. Striker Emile Heskey will return after missing the Chelsea match with sickness.
Everton midfielder Leon Osman will miss Saturday's trip to Tottenham Hotspur after being ruled out for six weeks with an ankle injury sustained in the 2-0 defeat of Liverpool last week.
Everton are also without Marouane Fellaini and Steven Pienaar but playmaker Mikel Arteta is expected to play despite tweaking a hamstring.
"Osman has a bad ankle injury which will keep him out for six weeks which is a real blow," manager David Moyes told Everton's website on Friday.
Fifth-placed Tottenham have a short recovery time for the lunchtime kick-off after their 4-3 defeat at Inter Milan on Wednesday.
Manager Harry Redknapp is hoping Younes Kaboul will be available to offer some defensive options with Ledley King definitely ruled out and William Gallas struggling to play a third match in the space of eight days.
Liverpool's Christian Poulsen believes the club's emerging youngsters can help the club to rise out of the bottom three.
England under-19 skipper Jonjo Shelvey made his first start for the club against Napoli in the Europa League on Thursday when manager Roy Hodgson fielded several other young players.
"Our young players battled well and you couldn't tell there was a lot of inexperience out there," former Juventus midfielder Poulsen told the club's website.
