Fulham - in freefall since the turn of the year, have fired manager Chris Coleman in the wake of their 3-1 home defeat on Monday to Manchester City, a result that leaves them perilously close to the relegation zone and being hauled in by sides such as West Ham and Charlton who are suddenly putting a run together.

The decision was somewhat of a surprise, as although Fulham are dropping like a stone, Coleman was generally well thought of as a manager there and has alwas seemed to have the backing of the Fulham board.

However, with Premiership safety imperative this season due to the vastly increased TV deal in place for next season, the Cottagers have decided to try and light a fire under their players by this decision as they are not a team short on talent but have in all honesty underachieved for the past couple of seasons, and their struggles are not entirely unexpected.

As an interim measure, they have appointed Lawrie Sanchez as caretaker manager until the end of the season. Sanchez, currently Northern Ireland manager will not see the roles clash as there are no international games until next season. After a difficult start in charge of Northern Ireland, he has won over fans and plaudits with a renaissance in fortunes and they currently lead their qualifying group - ahead of the likes of Spain and Sweden (beating both sides recently).

Both Fulham and Northern Ireland stress it is a short-term appointment, and it is certainly a novel one that a manager would be appointed on such a short-term, fixed basis.

Still, with financial meltdown on the horizon with a drop into the Championship, Fulham have decided to act now to secure their Premiership status and then go shopping for a new man in the summer. 

A week after scoring an injury time winner at Watford to haul keep themselves in the title race, Chelsea are very much alive and kicking now after Saturday's games which saw Chelsea win 1-0 over Tottenham and then United crash 2-1 at Fratton Park to a spirited Portsmouth side.

Jose Mourinho admitted that Chelsea would have been out of the race had they not won at Watford, but was in more buoyant mood yesterday, claiming that United are 'lucky' not to be playing the Blues next weekend as he is convinced that is the game they will slip up.

Mourinho also pointed to previous fixtures of late, where United had often played in the Saturday lunchtime or 3pm kick offs, whereas Chelsea featured in the late game - and advantage to United in that they were always extending their lead instead of trying to maintain it.

And yesterday, having seen Chelsea cut their lead to three points, United came unstuck with a performance perhaps every bit as worrying as the result itself. A previous 'lucky' trait of United's this season (according to Mourinho) is their lack of injuries to key players in comparison to Chelsea, but United were without Neville, Vidic and Saha yesterday which highlighted a lack of quality in key positions with the likes of O'Shea, Fletcher and Smith hardly upto the grade.

At a tough stage of the season, it could also be catching up on a number of players who have been ever present through most of the season, and again yesterday they looked over reliant on Cristiano Ronaldo.

Having lost to Roma in the Champions League last week, they now face a tricky return leg ahead of next weekends FA Cup semi-final against Watford. It could be a welcome distraction for a side that now face a real battle on their hands to maintain their superb run of form this season in the EPL to fend off the current title holders.

The clash between the two sides looks to be a mouth watering one (although there are a few key clashes between now and then) and could it be that Chelsea are peaking at just the right time?

Man Utd's remaining Premiership fixtures:

Tuesday, 17 April
(H) Sheff Utd
Saturday, 21 April
(H) Middlesbrough
Saturday, 28 April
(A) Everton
Saturday, 5 May
(A) Man City
Wednesday, 9 May
(A) Chelsea
Sunday, 13 May
(H) West Ham

Chelsea's remaining Premiership fixtures:

Wednesday, 18 April
(A) West Ham
Sunday, 22 April
(A) Newcastle
Saturday, 28 April
(H) Bolton
Sunday, 6 May
(A) Arsenal
Wednesday, 9 May
(H) Man Utd
Sunday, 13 May
(H) Everton

For all the talk of the EPL being the best league in the world, the participants' success in the UEFA Champions League has been patchy in recent times to say the least.

In the past decade, Manchester United and Liverpool have of course lifted the trophy, but there has not been the dominance by EPL teams that has been seen by sides from their main rivals in Spain's La Liga and Italy's Serie A.

With all four sides (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United) making the knock-out stages, it looked like it could even be an all-EPL final and potentially three of the four semi-finalists coming from the EPL.

However, Arsenal's shock exit to PSV in the last-sixteen has now been followed up by poor results by both Chelsea and Manchester United this week at the hands of Valencia and Roma respectively.

Whilst Liverpool have one foot in the semi-finals, both United and Chelsea now have work to do to make it into the final four. United will have to win (albeit at home) against Roma and do so without Paul Scholes and the now injured Nemandja Vidic and Gary Neville, whilst Chelsea also have to win - this time on the road in Valencia where the corpses of despatched big name sides still lie.

It is conceivable all three will make the final four and even have an all EPL final, but it is about time that EPL sides proved their worth and finally laid down a marker to back up the claim it is the best league in the world.

As the leagues around Europe raw to a close and the Championship races have been decided, focus is beginning to turn more and more to the World Cup as the national managers begin to finalise their line-ups.

Previous World Cups (and European Championships) have seen some of the best players either miss out through injury or not be at their best due to injuries sustained during the season and this World Cup is shaping up to be no different.

The focus here in England (before Theo Walcott was named to the squad) was all about Wayne Rooney who joined the metatarsal club when he broke the bone in his foot just a week before the end of the season. Although he has been named to the England squad, he is a certainty to miss the group games and may only be fit for the latter stages if at all, meaning he will not have trained for around a month.

For England, Arsenal duo Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole have suffered injuries this season and have only just returned to action whilst over in Italy, star man Francesco Totti has played just two games at the end of the season as he bids to get fit for the finals, but like Rooney he is expected to be named to Marcello Lippi's squad but fellow striker Christian Vieri has been ruled out through injury.

Harry Kewell of Australia also suffered an injury in last weekends FA Cup Final and is now undergoing treatment in a bid to make the finals, but perhaps the biggest blow (aside from Rooney) could be the damaged ligaments suffered by Andriy Shevchenko. Shevchenko - who last weekend announced he wished to leave AC Milan is expected to be out for around five weeks which (like Rooney) will probably rule him out of the early stages.

So once again, as the Worlds focus turns to the biggest tournament in World sport, much of the focus leading up to the opening kick off is concerned with who may not be there as opposed to who will be playing.