Venue: Fratton Park

Date: Tuesday, 3 March

Kick-off: 1945 GMT

Tonight sees us travel to Fratton Park to take on a well rested Portsmouth side who haven’t had a game for ten days courtesy of United’s appearance in the Carling Cup Final Sunday. Still, there’s no point us moaning about the amount of games we’ve played before this one, we just need to get on with it.
We’ve both got new managers since our meetings in the league and cup earlier this season, with Paul Hart taking over as caretaker manager following Tony Adams’ recent departure and Guus Hiddink coming in for us temporarily after the sacking of Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Hart’s remained unbeaten since taking over at Pompey, lifting them to 16^th in the table although they’re still just two points off the relegation zone, so they’ll be looking for a much better return than they got from our two earlier meetings this season.

In the run up to the game the caretaker manager says “Chelsea are very good. They have some world class players and we have to guard against that.  But it is not like we are going to go out there and start putting up the shutters. When we can play we will play.  You only have to look at last weekend’s results to see some strange things can happen at this stage of the season.”

Guus Hiddink has also managed to remain unbeaten in his three games in charge of Chelsea so far, and although he’s saying all the right things in terms of the title race not being over, he knows he won’t be saying anything of the sort if we lose tonight.

On squad news for Pompey, midfielders Richard Hughes (hamstring), Papa Bouba Diop (knee), Jerome Thomas (back) and Marc Wilson (hip) remain out. Full-back Armand Traore (thigh) also misses out.

For Chelsea, Joe Cole (knee) remains absent long-term and Deco misses out with a hamstring injury. Ricardo Carvalho and Michael Essien both played for the reserves last night, so whilst they’re both nearing a return, it won’t be tonight.

KEY PLAYERS

PORTSMOUTH

Hermann Hreidarsson – solid defensively, committed, aggressive and scores goals too, a player not to be underestimated.

CHELSEA

Didier Drogba – the Ivorian may well have scored just one goal in the Premier League this season but he’s recently threatened a return to form and it’s probably no coincidence that we’ve looked a stronger side lately.

HEAD TO HEAD

Pompey have dropped more points, lost more games and conceded more goals to us than any other side since gaining promotion to the Premier League in 2003. However, it should be remembered that the only points we’ve dropped to Portsmouth in 10 Premier League games came in last season’s game at Fratton Park where we drew 1-1.

THIS SEASON’S REVERSE

CHELSEA 4-0 PORTSMOUTH

Chelsea scorers: J Cole, Anelka, Lampard (pen), Deco

17^th August 2008 – Ref: Mike Dean

PREDICTION

We might have already beaten them 4-0 on two occasions this season but this game can’t be measured against those results. Caretaker manager Paul Hart will be only too aware of those results as Pompey continue to fight their way out of a relegation battle. Of course, Hiddink’s not done too badly either since taking over at Chelsea and whilst I still can’t see us killing this game off as easily as he’d like us too, hopefully we’ll be up for a battle – because just like the weekend’s game against Wigan, I think that’s what we’ll be getting at Fratton Park tonight.

TEAMS

PORTSMOUTH (from): James, Johnson, Distin, Campbell, Hreidarsson, Pennant, Davis, Basinas, Kranjcar, Nugent, Crouch, Begovic, Pamarot, Mvuemba, Gekas, Kanu, Little.

CHELSEA (from): Cech, Mancienne, Alex, Terry, A Cole, Ballack, Mikel, Lampard, Kalou, Anelka, Drogba, Hilario, Quaresma, Ivanovic, Di Santo, Malouda, Ferreira, Belletti.

Filed under: Match Day, Preview