Manchester United v Portsmouth Preview 22nd April 2009

Manchester United v Portsmouth Preview 22nd April 2009

Despite Liverpool only managing a draw last night against Arsenal and topping the table on goal difference alone, Alex Ferguson will be keen to use one of Manchester United’s games in hand against Portsmouth tonight to knock them off the number one spot. The controversial Scot surprised and ultimately disappointed many on Sunday by fielding an inexperienced team in their losing FA cup semi against Everton and is unlikely to do the same against Pompey.

Rafael and Fabio Da Silva, Federico Macheda, Danny Wellbeck, Ben Foster and Darren Gibson all started at Wembley but all will almost certainly step aside for the more established stars, including Paul Scholes, who is expected to make his 600th appearance for the Red Devils tonight. Carrick is also hoping to be passed fit for tonight’s match and Fletcher may also be sufficiently recovered from is hamstring injury to be selected tonight. Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic are also likely to play at centre-back and may in fact be the only survivors from the weekend’s defeat.

As well as the immense depth of Manchester United’s squad, Ferguson is bullish that his team have the psychological strength to bounce back after Sunday’s disappointment. "We only lost the semi-final with Everton on penalties and that can happen to anyone," said boss Ferguson. "There is enough motivation to ensure we will be OK against Portsmouth. We are focused on what we have got to do."

Whilst Ferguson’s attention is very much on the top spot, the match is of equal significance to Pompey at the other end of the table. The South Coast team are only 6 points above the drop zone and three points against Manchester United could provide them with the buffer they need to stay in the top flight next season. Portsmouth have had a tough season after first losing their influential manager Harry Redknapp to Tottenham and then sacking his replacement Tony Adams as form suffered, but have grown in confidence under caretaker boss Paul Hart. Since Hart took over, the team have lost just once against Chelsea and are currently unbeaten in five games having conceded just four goals in the process. However Hart, whilst remaining positive, advises against complacency "Anybody who thinks the 37 points we've got makes us safe already is a fool," said Hart "We are keeping hard down on the pedal and, even though United are the best team in the world, we can give them problems if we prepare right. I can't see any reason why we can't get something there." Hart also has Brian Kidd on his staff, who as a former number two to Ferguson, will be useful in anticipating the Scot’s game plan.

Pompey does however have some injury problems and like most teams in the world does not have a squad with as much depth as Manchester United to call upon. Portsmouth will be without their inspirational midfielder Niko Kranjcar who is out with an ankle injury and defender Younes Kaboul looks unlikely after tearing fibres in a thigh muscle.

My prediction for tonight is that as Manchester United have an uncanny knack of bouncing back strongly after disappointment (look at their form since the defeats against Fulham and Liverpool), this momentum will be too much for Pompey, who will go down 2:0 at Old Trafford.