Victory for the Gunners at Charlton Athletic would give them the title for the fourth time in five years, breaking their own twice-achieved record of three successes in five campaigns.

Anything but victory for Donny over Birmingham City, on the other hand, would see the Belles relegated for the first time since the inception of the League 14 years ago.

Donny have twice won the League and six times finished runners-up – and never, until last season, had they ended the season outside the top three.

But a slide which started last term was continued in the current campaign as they failed, understandably perhaps, to adequately replace the eight internationals who left the club during the 2004 close season.

One of those internationals, Jody Handley, helped Everton beat her old club last week but is hoping to see Donny somehow retain their National Division status.

Handley, who on Thursday evening helped England beat Scotland 2-1, said: "I don’t want to see Donny go down. They’ve got a great history in the women’s game and they belong in the top flight.

"I don’t think they deserve to go down this season – considering how many players left after last season they’ve done well to gather the players together that they’ve now got at the club.

"I feel a bit bad in myself as one of the players who left, but I left to join a club that’s on my own doorstep and that’s obviously easier for me to get to for training and matches. I don’t regret moving, but I do wish Donny all the best and I’d love to see them stay up."

While Handley is hoping that Donny stay up, Charlton - the team she will be facing with Everton in The FA Cup final on 2 May – will be hoping to knock Arsenal down a peg or two as they look to become the first side this season to win a League match against the Gunners.

It’s win or bust for the Addicks, in fact – a draw would give Arsenal the title, while even a win for Charlton would leave the Gunners with the chance to clinch the championship by beating Fulham in the top flight’s last match of the season on Sunday, 8 May.

To make matters worse for Charlton, who have already lost to Arsenal in the Premier League Cup final, they will be without Katie Chapman after the key midfielder broke her hand while playing for England against Scotland.

A disappointed Addicks manager Keith Boanas confirmed: "Katie’s definitely out on Sunday, and we won’t know until at least Monday whether or not she’ll be fit to play in the Cup final.

"We obviously hope she’ll be back for the match against Everton, but in the meantime we’ve got to do without her and we’ll still have the same aim for the Arsenal game.

"We’ve got to win to put a bit of pressure on them going into their last match, so we’ll really be going for it on Sunday. I expect them to do the same though, so I think it will be a very attacking match."

Boanas will almost certainly get what he expects, with Arsenal aiming to make up for last week’s disappointment of losing to Swedish side Djurgården/Älvsjö in the UEFA Cup semi-final by winning the League to give themselves another crack at Europe next season.

Gunners boss Vic Akers said: "If we’d played anywhere near like we can against the Swedish team we would be in the UEFA final, but we had a fantastic run so we can’t be too disappointed.

"What we have to do now is make sure we’re in the competition again by winning the League, and with two games left we couldn’t ask for a better position because our fate’s in our own hands.

"But although we know we could lose on Sunday and still win the League, that’s definitely not in our minds – we’ll be going to Charlton aiming to wrap up the title."