Premiership
Fratton Park
Monday, 25 August; KO: 20:00 BST


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Premiership Table:


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Manchester United striker


Carlos Tevez

is available after a family bereavement kept him out of the draw with Newcastle
on the opening day of the season.

Anderson will be back from the Olympics but may not be rushed into action,
while John O'Shea may deputise for Michael Carrick, and Nani is banned.

Portsmouth midfielder Niko Kranjcar is a major doubt after picking up an injury playing for Croatia.

But Lassana Diarra has recovered from a knee injury suffered against Chelsea.




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BIG-MATCH FACTS



The European and domestic league champions and the FA Cup winners meet for the second time in a fortnight;
both seeking their first Premier League win.

Portsmouth are hoping to avoid a Premier League club record sixth successive defeat;
if held, Manchester United would replicate last season by drawing their first two games.

Pompey met the so called 'Big Four' in their first six fixtures last season;
the Red Devils must visit two of them in their next two league outings (Liverpool on 13 September and Chelsea on the 21st).

This match brings together the two oldest managers in the Premier League;
Sir Alex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp have a combined age of 127,
with the Red Devils' boss the senior by five years, at 66 years of age.

The Fratton Park club were seven places and 30 points inferior to the champions last season;
United won 11 more matches, scored 32 more goals and conceded 18 fewer.

Portsmouth have won three of the five Premier League matches against Manchester United at Fratton Park and lost just once;
that defeat being 1-3 on 11 February 2006 - Ruud van Nistelrooy scored United's first
and Cristiano Ronaldo got the other two.





CLUB FORM




Club stats
Fixtures
2007-08 Premier League performance


Last season's finishing position: 8th
This season: (going into the weekend) 20th 0 points


1. Kicked off the league campaign with a 4-0 defeat away to Chelsea;
the heaviest loss of the nine on the opening weekend of the Premier League season.

2. Not scored in two (all comps);
the 0-0 draw with Manchester United in the Community Shield, preceded the visit to Stamford Bridge.

3. Lost the last five league games; against Manchester City (a), Blackburn (h), Middlesbrough (a), Fulham (h) and Chelsea (a).

4. On the longest current sequence without a Premier League goal of four matches.

5. Not scored in 426 minutes (seven hours six minutes) of top-flight football since John Utaka's goal against Manchester City on 20 April;
their only goal in six outings.

6. Winless in six;
drawn one and lost five Premier League matches since prevailing 0-1, away to West Ham on 8 April.

7. A draw would bring their total of points in two spells under Harry Redknapp to 200 in the Premier League,
and 300 in the Premier and Football League combined.

8. Only lost their first two fixtures of a Premier League season once;
that was in 2005-06, against Tottenham (h) and West Brom (a).
It took five games to register a first victory in that campaign.

9. Did not manage to defeat a 'Big Four' club last season (four draws, four defeats).
Not beaten a member of the elite quartet of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United
since the 2-1 home victory over the Merseysiders on 28 April 2007.





Club stats
Fixtures
2007-08 Premier League performance



1. Started the Premier League season with a



1-1 draw




home to Newcastle.

2. It was the seventh time in 17 Premier League seasons they had failed to win their initial fixture.

3. Failed to win one of their first two fixtures just three times in this league in 1992, 1998 and 2007.

4. Now completed the equivalent of an entire league season of 38 matches without a goalless draw;
their last no score stalemate was home to Reading on the opening day last term, 12 August 2007.

5. Scored at least one goal in each of the last 25 league matches,
since the 1-0 loss, away to Bolton, on 24 November 2007.






KEY PLAYER NOTES





Jermain DEFOE


needs a double to total 100 career league goals
(West Ham, Bournemouth, Tottenham and Portsmouth).



If he plays:-


Glen JOHNSON

will be playing two days after his


24th birthday.








If selected:-


Wes BROWN

will be making his 200th Premier League appearance
all in a Manchester United shirt.


If on the field from the outset:-


Gary NEVILLE

will be making his 350th Premier League start for Manchester United.

Suspended:-

Luis NANI (one match)




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HEAD TO HEAD

Portsmouth and Manchester United met three times last season.
United drew at Fratton Park and then

won at Old Trafford

in the league.

But Portsmouth had the upper hand in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

A 78th minute penalty from


Sulley Ali Muntari

Portsmouth vs Man United
1 (0) - 1 (1)

15 August 2007 - Ref: Steve Bennett




Manchester United scorer:





Scholes 15

Mwaruwari 53

:



Muntari [second yellow] (Portsmouth) 83




Ronaldo (Manchester United) 85




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