Monday Night Football-Portsmouth v Manchester United
The Portsmouth Manchester United game from Fratton Park is live on Sky Sports tonight and comes only a couple of weeks after the teams met in the season curtain raiser at Wembley in the Community Shield.
United looked by far the better team that day, but despite having a lot of possession found it hard to break down the Portsmouth defence. The game eventually ended 0-0 before United won the match in a penalty shoot out by three goals to one.
Since that match both teams have started their Premier League campaigns and put in indifferent performances to say the least. Manchester United lacked sparkle and creativity in their 1-1 draw with Newcastle. Once again they had plenty of possession but failed to create too much with it and they didn’t deserve to beat Newcastle who were resolute in defence and who put in a decent performance. Manchester United must be concerned about their lack of a cutting edge going into this game tonight and with at best an average record away at Portsmouth it won’t be a match they will be looking forward to.
Portsmouth were comprehensively beaten by Chelsea on the opening day of the season and they seem to be lacking a little in confidence. They are usually solid at the back, but with the team having failed to score a goal in their last five matches there seems to be a nervousness there knowing they are under pressure to keep a clean sheet.
Portsmouth have lost their last five Premier League matches and they will have to show great improvement from their match against Chelsea if they want to halt that run of defeats. Portsmouth do have a good home record against United, with only one defeat in their last five home meetings.
There aren’t a lot of positives for the two sides going into this match, United don’t have a good record at Portsmouth, Portsmouth can’t score goals and haven’t won for five games and United seem to be lacking a cutting edge. On that evidence there isn’t a whole lot to choose between the teams and that’s how we see it.
Portsmouth are 4/1 (Ladbrokes) and if they were in better current form a price like that at home would have been unthinkable. There’s just too many negatives about Pompey for us to consider backing then –even at such a whopping price – so we’re giving then a miss.
United are 5/6 (Partybets) and do look a slightly better betting proposition. It’s worth remembering that last season United drew their first two league matches and with Portsmouth wanting to end their run of defeats we think this will be a tight match and we wouldn’t be surprised to see it end up all square.
We’re going for the draw 5/2 (Coral) and it is possible it could just be like Wembley all over again and finish in a 0-0 scoreline 10/1 (Skybet). Our selection is 1-1 draw 6/1 (Bet365) and we’re also going for a bet on the under +2.5 goals at 8/11 (VCbet).
Wayne Rooney to be the first goalscorer at 5/1 (Paddypower) and Peter Crouch 9/1 (Skybet) are the two bets we thin are worth a bet.