Another huge English Premier League weekend kicks off on Saturday (April 25th) with the biggest games being league leaders Manchester United taking on ninth-place Tottenham Hotspur at old Trafford. Liverpool will be hoping United slip up while they travel over to 16th place Hull, who are only three points above the relegation zone. Liverpool will again be without their injury-prone skipper Steven Gerrard. Third-place Chelsea, who seem to be out of the title race now, will visit seventh-place West Ham in a London derby.

At the other end of the table, last place West Brom are at home to 16th spot Sunderland, second-last Newcastle, who are fighting to survive in the EPL take on 14th place Portsmouth in a huge match on Monday, 18th place Middlesbrough will have their hands full in London when they play Arsenal on Sunday, and 17th place Blackburn will try to keep afloat by taking on 11th place Wigan in Manchester.

There’s quite a bit of news of the pitch in England too as Chelsea’s John Mikel Obi has been banned from driving for 15 months for drinking and driving. The 21-year-old was stopped in London on Jan. 24th. His teammate Frank Lampard got into a heated on-air argument with a radio DJ as Lampard was being criticized on air about his personal life. Lampard phoned the station and went at it with the DJ in a 15-minute rant.

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas has been charged with improper conduct by the FA over a spitting incident during a fifth round FA Cup tie with hull at the Emirates Stadium on March 17th. Fabregas allegedly spit at Hull’s assistant manager Brian Horton after the game in which Fabregas didn’t even dress for. Hull manager Phil Brown was also charged for his tirade at referee mike riley in the same game. Brown and Fabregas have until May 12 to respond to the charges.

The pitch at Wembley is to be dug up again and replaced after the sorry state it was in for last weekend’s FA Cup semi finals. The multi-purpose venue hasn’t had a good pitch since it opened two years ago, so a different type of turf will be used this time to see if it does the trick.

Over in Italy, Inter Milan striker Adriano got his wish as the club ripped up his contract. Brazilian international Adriano failed to return to Italy after a World Cup qualifier for Brazil earlier this month and the 27-year-old, who has suffered personal problems in the last few years said he wanted to take a break from football.

In France, Marseille captain Lorik Cana received a one-game ban after being sent off following a battle with Lorient’s Arnaud Le Lan in last weekend’s Ligue 1 match. The two players went at it on the pitch after arguing over a throw-in in the 88th minute of the game. Cana will now miss the league leader’s visit to Lille on Sunday.

In Spain seventh-place Atletico Madrid’s European hopes for next season were damaged yesterday (April 23rd) as they were hammered 5-1 at Racing Santander in the Primera Division.