Saturday, 28th November 2009 – KO: 15:00

A rare Saturday 3pm kick-off for United and a chance to close the gap on Chelsea, even if only for a day or so.

Fergie starts his two game touchline ban today so he’ll be watching from up in the stands and I wouldn’t put it past the FA to ensure that he is seated next to that guy who bangs a drum throughout Pompey’s home games!

Having given most of the bigs guns a rest against Besiktas in midweek, this game should see a return for the likes of Berbatov, Rooney, Evra and Van Der Sar. Brown and Vidic look set to continue in central defence with probably Rafael on the right.

It’s going to be interesting to see who Fergie chooses on the left of midfield for this one because things aren’t looking good for Nani right now. He was warming up on Wednesday night as though his life depended on it in an attempt to attract Fergie’s eye but was completely overlooked again. He is definitely due a game and if he doesn’t play any part here today then I think we can probably assume that he’s well and truly in the doghouse.

Carrick and Fletcher in midfield seems to be our best option at the moment and Valencia seems to have tied up that right side for himself.

Berby and Rooney up front would be good to see again.

Portsmouth, of course, are in all kinds of trouble at the moment. They are cut adrift at the foot of the Premier League table and need to start picking up points because a gap is starting to appear even at this early stage.

Just seven points from their opening thirteen games is even worse than relegation form.

Paul Hart looked like a dead man walking from the moment he took up the reins and the axe finally fell on him this week to be replaced by Avram Grant.

Teams sometimes respond to a new manager but not always and certainly not as often as some think.

One of the few things that Portsmouth have in their favour going into this match is a bit of a history of doing well against us, particularly at Fratton Park – they have won three of the last six meetings between us there and drawn one meaning that we have won just two of those last six. It’s probably fair to say though that their team was stronger in the past though.

The other thing that is noticable about their home form is that whilst they have lost five of their six home games so far this season, no one has gone there and really turned them over. All five of their defeats have been by a solitary goal and having faced the likes of Tottenham, Everton, Fulham and Manchester City, that is probably some source for encouragement for them.

What I see here is a pretty tough afternoon for Manchester United. Despite their lowly position in the league, Portsmouth haven’t been conceding an awful lot at home (their problem is that they haven’t been scoring many either – they have scored seven in their six home games but four of those were in one game, their last home game against Wigan which they won 4-0).

This 4-0 win is a bit hard to fit in. Was it a great day for Portsmouth or are Wigan going through a really bad patch (consider that they were stuffed 9-1 by Tottenham in their next away game)? Probably a bit of both.

Anyway, the bookies think we will win here but, like me, they think it will be close and that United will win by a solitary goal.

There is always the chance that United could win by more and so I do think there is value to be had from going against the grain a bit here.

The bet is 3 points Manchester United -1.5 AH @ 2.26 with Canbet.

A much more direct style of attacking play with far less messing around in front of goal led to a much more convincing scoreline than we have seen in most of our games this season.

Fergie opted for the 4-5-1 formation with Rooney upfront on his own. A position that he does not always seem to revel in but today the midfield really supported him in numbers, in particular, Ryan Giggs who a day shy of his 36th birthday, put in a performance which was up there with his best.

As we did get forward to support Rooney more, it did leave some space in front of the defence which Portsmouth exploited well in the first half and gave us quite a few problems and but for better finishing, especially from the dangerous Dindane, they might have gone into half time ahead.

Talking about refereeing decisions has become as much a part of United’s season as talking about the performances of the team and today was no different.

Two of our goals came from penalties. Both were definite penalties but they are the kind of decisions we have not been getting too often this season so on the one hand, full credit to Mike Dean for bucking the trend but he did try to level things up by giving Portsmouth a penalty in the first half for a shirt pull in the area.

It is the kind of things that should result in a penalty but he now puts himself (and all the other referees) under even more pressure because he and his colleagues will be expected to spot this kind of thing and award penalties every time and it is the kind of thing that goes on all the time in every game.

When Portsmouth equalised to make it 1-1, I must admit, the bet wasn’t looking too good but blistering start to the second half saw United go 3-1 ahead after just nine minutes as Rooney completed his hat-trick.

We lost our way again during the mid-part of the second half but Portsmouth couldn’t take advantage and it was left to Giggs to cap a fine performance with a beautiful free-kick after 87 minutes to wrap up the game and give him his 100th Premier League goal.

A good result for United and it shows the difference it makes when we get the decisions we deserve and when we play a more direct style.