LONDON (SE) - Relegation-threatened Sunderland are wary of the threat of Dimitar Berbatov ahead of their game against Fulham at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon.
Martin O'Neil's Sunderland (7-8-12) are five points clear of the bottom three and still in danger of being sucked into the relegation battle, but know a win this weekend would put them in a great position with 10 games remaining. However, the visitors have one of the league's in-form players in Berbatov, and the Bulgarian's former Manchester United colleague, John O'Shea, has warned his teammates to be on guard.
"He (Berbatov) is a fantastic player and everyone knows the quality that he has, you see with the technique he showed for the volley against Stoke - he's a man we'll have to keep an eye on," O'Shea said. "He'll be the player Fulham will play most balls to and go through mostly, but they've still got other players who can pose a threat."
Visitors Fulham (8-8-11) have three more points than Saturday's hosts, and feel they have almost done enough to escape the relegation battle, but manager Martin Jol is keen to get to 40 points and near-guaranteed safety as quickly as possible.
"Like a lot of other teams, we set a target that we would like to have 40 points," said Jol. "Then we can relax maybe a bit more and, from then on, try to get as high up the table as possible.
"If you see the league over the last five or six years, you will see the same situation. There are three or four clubs down there but, at the end of the year, you always see one or two teams dropping into trouble. Wigan Athletic, for example, are almost specialists in getting out of trouble, so there will always be one or two clubs to be dragged into it and we don't want to be one of those clubs. If you look at the games that we should get the points from, Reading and Sunderland for example, hopefully we will get the points from the teams who are in a similar position to us, or below us."
Sunderland have doubts over Lee Cattermole (knee) and Danny Rose (hamstring), but Wes Brown (knee) remains out. Fulham have concerns over Kieran Richardson (shin), Kerim Frei (groin) Mahamadou Diarra (knee) and Simon Davies (hip).
O'Neil's side have lost three straight matches and have failed to score in their last two games at the Stadium of Light. Their Black Cats' tally of 14 home goals this season is one of the lowest in the division - only Aston Villa (11) and QPR (8) have managed fewer.
Fulham have kept clean sheets in consecutive Premier League matches, but have been prevented from scoring in three of their last four league games away from Craven Cottage.
Sunderland ran out 3-1 winners in November when these teams met at Craven Cottage, with all four goals coming in the second half following Brede Hangeland's sending off in the first. That was the Black Cats' first win over Fulham in the last seven meetings.
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