West Ham arrive at Fratton Park tommorow on the back of five straight defeats in which they haven't scored a goal during that time and were thrashed in the UEFA Cup by Serie A side Palermo. The Hammers haven't won since the opening day of the season and all of the takeover talk and the arrival or Argentine duo Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano hasn't had the desired effect on the team as Alan Pardew's side hover dangerously above the bottom three.
However tommorow's visitors should not be under-estimated. After all a team with such quality players as Tevez, Benayoun and Etherington in their side mixed with some very promising youth prospects will not go forever without scoring and eventually they will pick up so make no mistake tommorow won't be an easy game for us and we'll have to work our arses off to make sure we don't suffer an iron backlash.
The recently arrested Anton Ferdinand should return to the side after being released on bail. Danny Gabbidon should also be fit to play after picking up a knock in Wales' game against Cyprus meaning the West Ham defence should be stronger than in their last game although the scorer for them last season; James Collins and recent signing John Paintsil will be missing. The main news for them is that Tevez might not play as he picked up a knee injury against Spain in midweek meaning 5 goal man Bobby Zamora or former Pompey target Carlton Cole should partner Marlon Harewood up front though don't be surprised to see Pompey old-boy Teddy Sheringham play some part in the fixture.
Moving the focus back to Pompey and we need to bounce back from two consecutive defeats as we look to consolidate our position in the top four. Defeat tommorow could send us down to 9th by the end of the day whilst a win could mathematically see us go top once again!
The good news for us is that we shouldn't have any injury concerns leading up to the game as Kanu is reportedly fit to play and Rudolphe Douala has recovered from a hamstring injury. Reports suggest that Harry will put Benjani and Matt Taylor back in the side in place of Lomana LuaLua and Niko Kranjcar who will drop to the bench. Andy Cole could possibly start whilst Manuel Fernandes might be a substitute again. All in all I think Harry will return to the solid side that served him so well and were so hard to break down at the start of the season.
If we have ambitions of Europe then we have to win this game. In fact we really need to win this game as I don't want to think about travelling to Stamford Bridge next weekend contemplating four straight defeats that will send us sliding down the table. The main thing I'm worried about tommorow is becoming the victims of sod's law once again after blunt Bolton became the first team to score against, and beat us this season whilst Spurs were in dire form and couldn't score to save their lives until we conceded to them after 45 seconds and ended up losing, albeit via an act of cheating.
Therefore playing a side that has lost five straight games without scoring a goal gives me cause for concern. You wouldn't bet against them scoring against us would you? What I will say is that we're yet to have a bad game and if we play to our full potential we should be able to take advantage of West Ham's current plight and take all three points before our trip to Chelsea next week.
It's a game on paper we should win, but I don't expect it to be easy and I have a bad feeling about it if I'm being honest. Still, this Pompey team are about proving people wrong and I hope they can prove me wrong tommorow!
Premiership Past: Pompey vs West Ham United
05/06: Pompey 1 West Ham United 1
This Boxing Day clash came when we had 13 points and were desperate for a result whilst West Ham were flying high in the table. Pompey got off to the best possible start as Gary O'Neil scored one of his trademark goals to give us a deserved lead. However this game proved to be 2 points dropped as slack marking in the box allowed James Collins so strike an equaliser. We never looked like winning after Laurent Robert was sent off and West Ham almost nicked it as Christian Dailly sent a header just wide in the dying seconds of the game.
Pundit Watch
Lawro: Draw (1-1)
Sky Sports: Home Win (2-0)
Soccernet: Home Win