Chelsea's Frank Lampard believes his side will show their title credentials when they face Manchester United on Sunday.

The Londoners' challenge to league leaders Liverpool has taken a knock of late following draws against West Ham and Fulham, leaving them three points adrift of the Reds in second place.

United are in third, four points behind Chelsea, but with two games in hand following their trip to Japan for the FIFA Club World Club they are keeping the pressure on Luiz Felipe Scolari's side.

But despite Chelsea's under-par results Lampard remains adamant the Blues remain in a favourable position.

"The publicity around Chelsea now is that if you drop a few points people jump on it straight away but Liverpool and United have dropped points, no-one has pulled away from us, and Arsenal are behind us," he told The Guardian.

"It's the same for everyone, now we're starting all pretty much level.

"A game against Manchester United will always be a table-topping clash. We're in a position now where we really want to get a result."

Sunday's only other game sees Tottenham travel to Wigan, a game which may see the return of striker Jermaine Defoe in a Spurs shirt.

The England international should be eligible to play at the JJB Stadium, with boss Harry Redknapp hinting at an attacking partnership of Defoe and Roman Pavlyuchenko as Darren Bent is sidelined with a groin complaint.

"I hope he can play with Pavlyuchenko," Redknapp said.

"They paid £16million for Bent, £14million for Pavlyuchenko and they say they couldn't play together. I couldn't be that stupid, surely."

Before those games, on Saturday Liverpool will have the chance to put extra distance between themselves and the chasing pack when they travel to face Stoke City in a 17.30 kick-off.

Coach Rafa Benitez welcomes back Fernando Torres and defender Martin Skrtel, but is likely to be without Xabi Alonso after the midfielder injured his foot during the FA Cup clash at Preston.

His replacement is likely to be Brazilian youngster Lucas, who has called on his team-mates to capitalise on the guarantee of one or both of United and Chelsea dropping points.

"We want to win because we want to stay on top of the league," Lucas told Liverpoolfc.tv.

"We have confidence and we have quality. We are producing some good performances and we are playing well as a team. We feel we can beat anyone.

"If we can win on Saturday we can relax and then see what happens in the other game."

Also on Saturday Aston Villa will try to hold on to fourth place when they host the league's bottom side West Brom in the day's early kick-off, while fifth-placed Arsenal - three points behind the Midlands side - will look to stay in touch with a win at home against Bolton.

Everton in sixth host Hull City, who after a storming start to life in the top flight have dropped to eighth. Elsewhere Portsmouth host Manchester City in a mid-table clash, Blackburn will want to continue their unbeaten start to life under new coach Sam Allardyce with a win away to Fulham.

Finally Newcastle United host West Ham, while also in the North East Middlesbrough welcome local rivals Sunderland.