Soccer/ FA Premiership: The mischievous glint in Alex Ferguson's eye was unmistakably there yesterday as Manchester United's manager confidently predicted "a massive turnaround" in the championship race this weekend.

United will reduce the gap at the top of the Premiership to four points by beating Sunderland at Old Trafford tonight and Ferguson will then be looking for Bolton Wanderers to do him a favour when Chelsea visit the Reebok Stadium tomorrow.

The comeback is far from complete but United have gone from being 18 points behind 38 days ago to seven points adrift with five games to go, including a visit to Stamford Bridge on April 29th. Ferguson is entitled to expect a comfortable victory over Sunderland, whose relegation will probably be sealed, but it is his confidence in Bolton that shone through during an appearance before the television cameras which seemed designed to unnerve Jose Mourinho's players.

"We are over the biggest hurdle with our win over Arsenal and if we do our job against Sunderland we will go four points behind Chelsea and we all know that Bolton is not an easy place for them to go to," he said. "We were the first team to score two goals at the Reebok this season (they won 2-1 on April 1st) and we had to play really well to get that type of result. So I'm hopeful, really hopeful, that Bolton can do us a turn.

"It's a difficult game for Chelsea and people will probably be half expecting it to be a draw. If that happens, or if Bolton win, it will be a massive turnaround in the championship race and when we go to Stamford Bridge it will be the league decider. Chelsea know we're on their shoulder - it's probably as close as anyone has been to them - and they know if they do slip up we're going to take our chance."

Bolton, seventh in the Premiership, have lost their last four games but Ferguson prefers to remember Sam Allardyce's team making a critical contribution to their last league title, three years ago, by pegging back Arsenal to a 2-2 draw during the period in which United's manager added "squeaky bum time" to the football lexicon.

"We played Tottenham the next day, won 2-0 and that more or less put us in the driving seat. So Bolton have done us a favour before and hopefully they can do it again. They still have an outside chance of reaching the Champions League and a good chance of being in the Uefa Cup, so they have everything to play for. Sam has worked hard on getting his best out of his players and I think he will get his best out of them this weekend. They are honest players who play at a level that never disappoints. Are they really going to lose five games in a row? We'll see."

Ferguson is so confident of making it 10 successive Premiership wins that he plans to field a weakened team, with several players rested before Monday's game at Tottenham. Louis Saha misses out after twisting his ankle, Ruud van Nistelrooy retaining his place in a match in which United's forwards will be under orders to peg back another of Chelsea's advantages.

"There won't be anything taken for granted but, frankly, I think we are playing too well to slip up," said Ferguson. "We're the form team in the league and the area in which we must now pay attention is improving our goal difference. At the moment we are eight goals behind Chelsea, so we might have to do something about that. When we look back at the recent games at home to Birmingham and Newcastle and the chances we missed we just hope we don't live to regret them."

Sol Campbell could be willing to take a World Cup gamble in an attempt to prove his fitness to England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson. The Arsenal defender underwent tests yesterday which revealed he had suffered a broken nose in the clash with Portsmouth's Svetoslav Todorov but he could be back in action within a week.

"Sol's nose is broken. He (will have to consult) a specialist," said Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger. "He has no breathing problems but the surgeon has to decide whether he has surgery now or whether we should wait until the end of the season."

Manchester Utd v Sunderland

Old Trafford, 7.45

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