LONDON (SE) - Relegation-threatened Sunderland are wary of the risk of Dimitar Berbatov in front of their game against Fulham at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon. Martin O'Neil's Sunderland (7-8-12) are five points free from underneath three and still in peril to be taken into the relegation battle, but know a win this week-end might place them in a great position with 10 games remaining. Nevertheless, the visitors have one of the league's in-form participants in Berbatov, and the Bulgarian's former Manchester United friend, John O'Shea, has informed his teammates to be on guard. "He (Berbatov) is really a great person and everybody knows the product quality that he has, you see with the approach he confirmed for the volley against Stoke - he's a person we'll need certainly to watch on," O'Shea said. "He will function as the person Fulham will perform most balls to and go through primarily, nevertheless they have still got other people who are able to pose a threat." Guests Fulham (8-8-11) have three more points than Saturday's hosts, and feel they've very nearly done enough to escape the relegation challenge, but boss Martin Jol is willing to make the journey to 40 points and near-guaranteed safety as quickly as possible. "Like plenty of other groups, we set a target that we would like to have 40 points," said Jol. "Then we are able to relax perhaps a bit more and, from then on, try to get as high as possible up the table. "If you see the category over the last five or six years, you'll see the exact same situation. There are three or four groups down there but, at the conclusion of the entire year, you usually see one or two clubs dropping into trouble. Wigan Athletic, as an example, are almost experts in escaping of trouble, so there will always be one or two clubs to be drawn engrossed and we do not want to be one of these clubs. If you look at the activities that we must have the points from, Reading and Sunderland like, hopefully we can get the points from the teams who're in an identical position to us, or below us." Sunderland have concerns over Lee Cattermole (knee) and Danny Rose (hamstring), but Wes Brown (knee) remains out. Fulham have concerns over Kieran Richardson (shin), Kerim Frei (crotch) Mahamadou Diarra (leg) and Simon Davies (hip). O'Neil's part have lost three straight fits and have failed to score inside their last two games at the Stadium of Light. Their Black Cats' tally of 14 house goals this season is among the lowest in the section - just Aston Villa (11) and QPR (8) have managed fewer. Fulham have kept clean sheets in sequential Premier League matches, but have been prevented from scoring in three of the last four category games away from Craven Cottage. Sunderland ran out 3-1 winners in November when these clubs met at Craven Cottage, with all objectives arriving the 2nd half following Brede Hangeland's giving off in the first. That has been the Black Cats' first make an impression on Fulham within the last eight conferences.
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