Portsmouth vs Manchester United: You are my first, my last, my everything?
Rock-bottom Portsmouth have this week sacked Paul Hart and replaced him with Avram Grant and face a Manchester United side chasing a fourth successive league title - not many fixed odds coupons will not have this one down as a banker away win.
Avram Grant takes over from Paul Hart at Portsmouth and his first game is against Manchester United. Around this time two seasons ago he took over from Jose Mourinho at Chelsea and his first game was lost 2-0 at Old Trafford; his last game was the penalty shoot-out defeat (again against United) in the Champions' League final in Moscow. Grant's first game was against United and the third game was his last. Not liking to tempt fate but Portsmouth face Man United again on 6 February so barring a cup draw you would expect that Grant will see out the season.
The reason that Grant has been brought in is to generate results. The owners were happy that Paul Hart could get the performances right, but there were too many close-run games where Pompey were 'unlucky' - Grant has been brought in to turn performances into results. It is rare that the bottom team in the division has a goal difference that is superior to five other clubs, which is a mark of how close so many games were. With the safety mark only four points distant if Grant can change-up the results of six or seven games over the course of the season then he can get Pompey safe.
Portsmouth last 5 league games LXWLL
Tottenham (h) 1-2
Hull (a) 0-0
Wigan (h) 4-0
Blackburn (a) 1-3
Stoke (a) 0-1
But unfortunately for Portsmouth they face a Man United side stinging from a home defeat in the Champions' League and eager to take advantage of the Arsenal / Chelsea game when the two other title challengers meet tomorrow. United are not scoring the volume of goals that they are used to partly as a result of the loss of the talismanic Cristiano Ronaldo - but going back a little further the loss of Ruud van Nistelrooy also caused a dip in goals scored. Interestingly as rumours grow that van Nistelrooy may be returning to England to stregthen Liverpool or Arsenal there is no suggestion that United (who are scoring fewer goals than either) may move for him.
Manchester United last 5 league games WLWLW
Bolton (h) 2-1
Liverpool (a) 0-2
Blackburn (h) 2-0
Chelsea (a) 0-1
Everton (h) 3-0
Portsmouth vs Manchester United; Kick Off 3:00pm 28 Nov 2009
Prediction Panel
Our panel contains both Squarefootball writers and readers, the writers are marked: (sqf).
Dave Blackburn : 0 - 2
Chris Cox : 0 - 2
Graham Enwright : 1 - 3
Sue Gardener : 0 - 3
Chris Goodwin : 0 - 3
Paul Grech (sqf) : TBC
Colin Illingworth (sqf) : 1 - 2
Hugh Larkin (sqf) : 0 - 2
Peter Lee : 0 - 2
Don McMahon : 0 - 2
Antony Melvin (sqf) : 0 - 4
Paul O'Meara (sqf) : TBC
Dave Nash : 1 - 3
Stephen Orford (sqf) : TBC
Tony Ratton : 1 - 3
Peter Rendle : 0 - 2
Dan Taylor : 1 - 5
Andy Wakeman : 1 - 3
Isaac Williams : 0 - 2
Mark Williams : 1 - 1
Panel Verdict
The panel is predicting a comfortable 2-0 Man United away win
Home: 0; Draw: 1; Away: 16; TBC: 3.
* Do we have it right, or do you know better? Please don't bother with derisory comments on the predictions after the match - unless you also pulled us up before it!
