If that wasn't tough enough then the next game is at Goodison Park to play Everton. This means that Portsmouth could well be bottom of the table with no points come the end of August! On the other hand its sometimes a good thing to catch the big guns at the start of the season before their big name players arrive/settle in.
It's a strange co-incidence that we're playing West Ham on Boxing Day again for the third time in four years and our final game of the season is a nice trip to the JJB Stadium to play Wigan Athletic.
It's almost certain that Sky will televise the opening game as Big Phil Scolari is introduced to English football as well as the Pompey fans. The trip to Manchester City and the home clash with Stoke will also be moved to Sunday as we will be playing in the UEFA Cup the Thursday before.
If we make it far in the Carling Cup and get to the group stages of the UEFA Cup then we will be playing eight games in November and December so you can see why Harry Redknapp really needs to improve the squad size before the end of August.
We will have to wait until the start of April for our first ever trip to the KC Stadium whilst that month looks the easiest on paper.
So we get to play United three times in a month with two of those games before the season has even begun. It should be worth waiting for.