Robin van Persie (right) runs to his Manchester United team-mates after scoring against Chelsea at Old Trafford, on Sunday.

After the cracker of a match at Old Trafford, where Manchester United shared the points in a 1-1 draw with leaders Chelsea last weekend, the Red Devils will take a short trip to the Etihad Stadium tomorrow to play guests to Manchester City.

Robin van Persie’s late goal against Chelsea dropped United a lifeline but they’re still ten points behind the leaders.

Manchester City suffered their second loss of the season at West Ham and are now six points adrift.

City boss Manuel Pellegrini is confident his team can handle the pressure and sustain a successful defence of their Premier League crown. The Chilean manager, however, must first sort out his defence after going down to West Ham in their previous match.

That defeat came at the back of an unexpected 2-2 draw away at CSKA Moscow in a Champions League group match City were leading 2-0 at one point.

Although United lost four points in their last two outings, Louis van Gaal praised his team’s fighting spirit. This week, former United manager Alex Ferguson blamed injuries for the lack of consistency at Old Trafford in this early phase of the season.

In the last ten years of Manchester derbies at City’s patch, the visitors held the upperhand with five wins to their neighbours’ four.

2013: City-United 4-1
2012: City-United 2-3
2012: City-United 1-0
2010: City-United 0-0
2010: City-United 0-1
2008: City-United 0-1
2007: City-United 1-0
2007: City-United 0-1
2006: City-United 3-1
2005: City-United 0-2

The draw at Old Trafford was Chelsea’s second this season after the stalemate against Manchester City in September.

Today, Jose Mourinho’s team play lowly Queens Park Rangers and start favourites to maintain their perfect record at Stamford Bridge.

Mourinho reckoned an official’s error had deprived Chelsea of a win over United on Sunday, declaring their four-point lead at the top of the table allowed ‘little space for our mistakes or the referee’s mistakes”.

Second-placed Southampton have won seven of their last eight league matches and they’re now four points behind Chelsea.

The Saints play at Hull next hoping for another positive result.

Saints boss Ronald Koeman believes his side could be playing in the Champions League next season after the win over Stoke propelled them ahead of Manchester City.

Southampton made the headlines for scoring eight goals recently but Koeman was more satisfied with his team’s display against Stoke than the 8-0 annihilation of Sunderland the previous week.

Steve Bruce has hailed Hatem Ben Arfa’s professionalism and revealed the French winger is putting in extra hours to make his loan at Hull a success.

West Ham, meanwhile, shot to the fourth place after a 2-1 win over Manchester City. Today, they play at away at Stoke.

Hammers boss Sam Allardyce is achieving wonders at Upton Park this season... something that had eluded Andre Villas-Boas at Spurs and, more recently, Brendan Rod-gers at Liverpool as both failed to get their new players to gel.

Allardyce feels the biggest test of his in-form side will come when the fixtures start to pile up next month.

Arsenal start favourites to beat bottom-placed Burnley at the Emirates today as dejected Liverpool travel to the north-east to play guests to a revived Newcastle at St James’s Park.

Looking back on last season, it appears that the Reds have lost their way when trying to impose their superiority over less-quoted sides, particularly at Anfield.

In their last match in the league, Alan Pardew saw his half-time rant pay off instantly as Newcastle fought back to beat Tottenham 2-1 and climb out of the relegation zone.

Fixtures and forecast

Premier League
Arsenal-Burnley - 1
Chelsea-QPR - 1
Everton-Swansea - 1
Hull-Southampton - X
Leicester-West Brom - X
Newcastle-Liverpool (13:45) - 2
Stoke City-West Ham - X

Tomorrow:
Aston Villa-Tottenham (17:00) - 2
Man. City-Man. United (14:30) - X

Monday:
C. Palace-Sunderland (21:00) - 1

Standings: Chelsea 23; Southampton 19; Man. City 17; West Ham 16; Arsenal, Swansea, Liverpool 14; Man. United 13; Everton 12; Hull City, Tottenham, Stoke 11; West Brom, Newcastle, A. Villa 10; C. Palace, Leicester 9; Sunderland 8; QPR 7; Burnley 4.

The Championship
Blackburn-Reading - 1
Blackpool-Ipswich - 1
B’nemouth-Brighton (18:15) - 1
Brentford-Derby - 2
Cardiff-Leeds - 1
Charlton-Sheffield Wed. - X
Huddersfield-N. Forest - X
Rotherham-Middlesbrough - X
Watford-Millwall - 1
Wigan-Fulham - 1
Wolves-Birmingham (13:15) - 1

League One
Bradford-Doncaster - 1
Bristol City-Oldham - 1
Chesterfield-Yeovil - 1
Colchester-Port Vale - 1
Crawley-Crewe - 1
Fleetwood-Gillingham - 1
Leyton Orient-Coventry - X
MK Dons-Swindon - X
Notts County-Walsall - X
Peterborough-Scunthorpe - 1
Rochdale-Preston - X
Sheffield Utd-Barnsley - 1

League Two
Burton-Plymouth - 1
Bury-Cambridge - 1
Cheltenham-York - 1
Dagenham-Shrewsbury - 2
Exeter-Luton - 2
Hartlepool-Newport - X
Mansfield-Southend - X
Northampton-Wimbledon - 1
Oxford-Wycombe - X
Portsmouth-Carlisle - 1
Tranmere-Stevenage - X

Hot four
Everton, Blackburn Rovers, Bournemouth, Wolves.