Defeat for Arsenal against Chelsea today could well spell the end of the Gunners' title challenge, according to eurosport.yahoo.com analyst Paul Parker.

"Arsenal can kiss their title bid goodbye if Chelsea beat them at Stamford Bridge.

I feel this campaign has come 12 months too early for Arsene Wenger's young side. They've lost key players at key times and their squad is not big enough to cope - the players coming in haven't really been up to the job.

The return of Robin van Persie came amid much fanfare, but in reality he is still three weeks off the pace. He needs a goal to give him a mental boost, but until that comes, Arsenal are going to struggle.

Losing Eduardo was a big blow and with Emmanuel Adebayor having lost his scoring edge of late, Arsenal are struggling to find the back of the net with the regularity we have become used to - and at such a late stage in the season, that can be critical.

Even at the back, they're missing something at the moment, their problems stemming from having a centre-back who seems more content to be making headlines in the papers than leading his team on the pitch. For me, William Gallas is far from an ideal captain.

Next season, there's no doubt that with a touch more experience, Arsenal will be able to last the pace, but I just feel defeat against Chelsea will be too great a physiological blow to recover from.

The Blues on the other hand are looking every bit title contenders at the moment, and a win over the Gunners will heap the pressure on Manchester United.

Their play may been unspectacular for the majority of the season, but slowly and surely Avram Grant's side have been getting the right results and I believe it is now they who pose the biggest threat to United's crown.

And with United playing against possibly their fiercest rivals on Sunday, Chelsea could well close the gap on the league leaders this weekend.

There may well be no way back into the title race for Liverpool - it would take something like relegation form from the top three over the next few weeks for them to even stand a chance - but Rafa Benitez's side can still go to Old Trafford and get something on Sunday.

Alex Ferguson has tinkered with his side over recent weeks, but is expected to name his strongest side for the visit of Liverpool.

One of his most recent experiments was to play Owen Hargreaves at right-back in the win over Bolton. I think it was a bold decision, but one that paid off - he looked comfortable in that position and offered far more than Wes Brown going forward.

I remember seeing him play there for Bayern Munich at Old Trafford a number of years ago - Ryan Giggs never got a look in that night - and I think Ferguson will be tempted to deploy him there again for the visit of Liverpool.

I'm just worried that as a spectacle, the game won't live up to the hype we've been hearing about all week on the television. United-Liverpool games have proved to be tight, cagey affairs over recent years, and I fear that may again be the case this time round."

Eurosport