For the final time this season, the Premier League plays a round of midweek matches, including five games on ESPN networks. Here is a note for each of those five games.

• Second-place Manchester United hosts Stoke City on Tuesday (2:55 ET on ESPN2 and ESPN3), looking to keep pace with Manchester City, which visits Everton. United is undefeated in eight straight games versus Stoke, last losing in the League Cup in 1993, though United still advanced in that matchup. Stoke's last league win in the series was Dec. 26, 1984. Despite being in eighth place this season, Stoke's road form has been horrid; the Potters' road goal difference of minus-13 is third-worst in the league, ahead of only bottom-dwelling Wigan and Swansea City.

• Speaking of the Swans, they host Chelsea on Tuesday (2:45 ET on ESPN3), in a meeting of two of the league's most accurate passing teams. Manchester City leads the Premier League with a pass completion percentage of 85.8, followed closely by Chelsea (85.5 percent) and Swansea City (85.4 percent). As Albert Larcada detailed here, Swansea's problem has been converting that possession into offense, as the Swans rank 19th in the league with 11.7 shots per game this season.

• Last-place Wigan heads to White Hart Lane Tuesday (2:45 ET on ESPN3), looking to replicate its 1-0 upset from a season ago. That was the second time Wigan had topped Tottenham in 12 all-time meetings, and it was even more surprising considering Spurs had trounced the Latics 9-1 at home the previous year. Getting shut out doesn't seem likely this time for Tottenham, which has scored in 21 straight games, the longest active streak in the Premier League.

• Newcastle travels to Blackburn on Wednesday, with Demba Ba back for the Magpies, following Senegal's surprise group-stage exit at the Africa Cup of Nations. Ba leads Newcastle with 15 Premier League goals and 46.9 percent of the team's goals this season. Both numbers are second only to Robin van Persie, whose 19 goals are 48.7 percent of Arsenal's scores this season. Since debuting for West Ham last February, Ba has scored a goal every 108.4 minutes in Premier League play, the best rate in league history.

• A revived Sunderland side welcomes Norwich City to the Stadium of Light on Tuesday (3 ET on ESPN3). Since Martin O' Neill became manager on Dec. 5, Sunderland has won 16 points from eight matches, including five wins. In their first 14 games, the Black Cats earned only 11 points, with a total of two wins. The last Sunderland manager to win five of his first eight games was Alex Mackie in 1899.