Portsmouth v.s Manchester United Preview
Manchester United travel down to the south coast for their first away Premier League fixture of the season, having drawn with Newcastle United at Old Trafford last week. Portsmouth on the other hand were torn apart by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and lost 4-0 in the process.
Manchester United's last win at Fratton Park came in the February of 2006 when, in front of 20,206 fans, United scored three to Portsmouth's one. This win is United's only win in the Premier League against Portsmouth. The last league win came in 1987 with goals from Robson and McClair.
Harry Redknapp has done a wonderful job at Portsmouth and the FA Cup winners will want some revenge for United's community shield victory. Redknapp will also be keen to forget about the 4-0 drumming last week and will want Portsmouth to get something out of the game. He will be concerned about the fitness of Niko Kranjcar who limped out of Croatia's 3-2 win in midweek over Slovenia.
Manchester United are without Cristiano Ronaldo (recovering from injury), Nani (suspended), Hargreaves and Ji Sung Park are both unlikely to feature due to lack of match practise. United welcome back Carlos Tevez, who had flown back to Argentina due to a family bereavement, and Anderson who is returning from the Olympics having won bronze with Brazil. Nemanja Vidic is expected to play although the defender did miss training on Saturday morning.
(By Stretford-end)