Portsmouth vs Manchester City preview-February 14, 2009
Game : Portsmouth ( 16th-24 points) vs Manchester City ( 9th-31 points)
Competition : English Premier League
Venue : Fratton Park ( Portsmouth home)
Kickoff : 15.00 GMT
Managerless Portsmouth face Manchester City in Saturday’s only Premier League fixture at Fratton Park.
Pompey fired manager Tony Adams earlier this week after just 22 games in the hot seat. Last Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Liverpool was the last straw for Pompey’s management, who felt the need to bring somebody new if the club had to arrest its alarming downslide. Caretaker boss Paul Hart has a tough job on his hands- the players are low on morale, and Pompey have lost seven of their last eight games. Papa Bouba Diop, Richard Hughes and Jerome Thomas continue to be absent.
Portsmouth form- last five games- all competitions- Portsmouth scorers in brackets
Portsmouth 2-3 Liverpool ( David Nugent, Hermann Hreidarsson)
Fulham 3-1 Portsmouth ( David Nugent)
Portsmouth 0-1 Aston Villa
Portsmouth 0-2 Swansea ( FA Cup)
Tottenham 1-1 Portsmouth ( David Nugent)
All three of Pompey’s recent goals have come from David Nugent, who enjoyed a new lease of life under Tony Adams.
Manchester City beat Middlesbrough 1-0 last week, with goalkeeper Shay Given making some excellent saves on his debut. Welsh forward Craig Bellamy scored the solitary goal of the game. City will be without skipper Richard Dunne and right winger Shaun Wright Phillips, with both of them suspended. A win for City will take them above West Ham, into eighth place.
Manchester City form- last five games- all competitions
Man City 1-0 Middlesbrough ( Craig Bellamy)
Stoke City 1-0 Man City
Man City 2-1 Newcastle ( Craig Bellamy, Shaun Wright Philips)
Man City 1-0 Wigan ( Pablo Zabaleta)
Man City 0-3 Nottingham Forest ( FA Cup)
The odds are against Pompey, but you need to remember that City have not won away since August, when they beat Sunderland.
In the last five times that City have visited Fratton Park, they have won only once- losing three and drawing once.
When these two teams met at the CoMs, City whacked Pompey 6-0. I don’t see a repeat of that scoreline though.
Prediction:- Portsmouth 2-2 Manchester City ( David Nugent, Peter Crouch/Craig Bellamy, Stephen Ireland)
