Every place gained in this season's Premier League table is worth £720,000 - meaning even some of Sunday's supposed dead rubbers could be worth nearly £1.5m to the winners.

While the primary focus is trained on the battles between Manchester United and Chelsea at the top and Birmingham, Fulham and Reading at the bottom, there will be plenty of jostling for position elsewhere.

Sunderland currently occupy 15th place, but a win over Arsenal, coupled with worse results for Wigan and Middlesbrough, could see them improve their end-of-season merit payments from £4.32m to £5.76m.

Aston Villa could be celebrating both a UEFA Cup place and merit payments of £11.52m for fifth position if they win at West Ham and Everton lose to Newcastle.

But if they lose and both Blackburn and Portsmouth triumph, they could find themselves out of European contention and out of pocket, with £9.36m on offer for eighth position.

Manchester City are another side who could profit by £1.44million if results favour them.

A win for Sven-Goran Eriksson's side could see them jump from ninth to seventh, providing Portsmouth and Blackburn lose and they can engineer a six-goal swing in goal difference.

They would currently earn £8.64m, but a leap of two places would see them break the £10million barrier as their reward.

Avram Grant's Chelsea go into the fixtures looking to pip the Red Devils to the title at the 11th hour, a feat that would bring in £14.4m, compared to £13.68m for second.

Derby have long been assured of the minimum £720,000, awarded to the league's bottom team.

Merit payments account for 25 per cent of the final end-of-season payments made to top-flight clubs, with 50 per cent of broadcast money paid equally between all 20 sides, and an additional 25 per cent paid as 'facility fees' linked to the number of times the club has been shown live on TV.