Portsmouth Preview

By: Martin | August 21st, 2009

Portsmouth

Last Season: 14th, 10-11-17 (41 points, -19 goal differential)

Recent Form: LL

Away Form (last season): 2-8-9

Last Meeting: Portsmouth 0-Arsenal 3 (1/28/09)

Portsmouth is bad. Really, really bad. In our season preview I picked them to barely stay up over Birmingham, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they were relegated from the Premiership. Since winning the FA Cup in 2008 and establishing themselves as a skillful, fundamentally sound, top half of the table club, they have sold: Glen Johnson to Liverpool, Peter Crouch to Spurs, Jermain Defoe to Spurs, Lassana Diarra to Real Madrid, Miguel Mendes to Rangers, and Djimi Traore to Monaco. They also lost manager Harry Redknapp and allowed Sol Campbell’s contract to expire. They haven’t found suitable replacements for those players.

Financial woes have made Portsmouth a relegation candidate, and they’ve looked the part so far. They’ve recorded a pair of 1-0 losses, at home to Fulham and away to Birmingham on an injury-time penalty. They’ve recorded 0 goals and only 5 shots on goal, and it must be said that their attack looks particularly anemic at the moment. The bottom line is that if Portsmouth are going to stay up this season, their path is clear–they’ve got to rely on a decent backline in front of solid (but overrated) keeper David James and try to grind out a lot of 0-0 and 1-1 draws, along with the occasional 1-0 or 2-1 victory. They’ll line up tomorrow in a 4-5-1 with three holding midfielders shielding the backline, and will be more than happy to just hoof the ball downfield in hopes that either a winger or the lone striker can track it down; if not, it’ll force Arsenal to reset and bring the ball downfield all over again.

In that respect, this match will present Arsenal with an interesting test. Last season, particularly at the beginning of the season, Arsenal seemed to lack focus against teams we were heavily favored against, and had particular trouble against physical, defensive, direct teams like Stoke and Fulham, which is probably pretty similar to Portsmouth’s game plan. However, part of the problem against those sides was that our short passing attack was too content to pass the ball back and forth looking for an opening, but if 10 men are behind the ball, openings are hard to find upon passing alone. Since then we’ve added Arshavin, who is willing and capable of attacking with the ball, which can draw defenders to him and create some space and passing lanes for other players. Bendtner has also shown an occasional tendency to attack with the ball, although his proficiency at it is obviously nowhere near Arshavin’s. Hopefully they and others will be aggressive tomorrow and open up Portsmouth’s defense.

I certainly don’t mean to be insulting or disrespectful, but Portsmouth is a bad team, and anything less than a win would be a big disappointment for Arsenal. This is one of the 5 or so easiest league fixtures we’ll have this season, and it’s the kind of match you have to win to be a legitimate title contender, and the kind of match we all too often ended up with a draw or even a loss in last season. I am a bit worried, because: (a) I always worry about everything; (b) Portsmouth will be playing the kind of tactics which have given us trouble in the past; and (c) this match is sandwiched right in the middle of a fixture list chock full of “big games” (Everton, the Celtic tie, Manchester United, Manchester City) and could be the kind of game players don’t take as seriously as they should. Here’s hoping we show up to play and can bust the game open a bit by grabbing an early goal and forcing them to come out of the shell and play.

Given that many of the players played 2 full away games in a 4 day span against Everton and Celtic, and we’ve got 2 big games (Celtic on Wednesday, Manchester United on Saturday) in a similarly short span coming up, don’t be surprised if Wenger rotates a couple members of the squad. No injuries were picked up in Glasgow, which is good, and Eduardo should be back in contention for this match. However, Walcott is still out with his back ailment, and Wenger said that he is unsure if Walcott will be fit for United next weekend or not. For now, I’ll just go with chalk and put the same lineup as we saw in the first couple of games out there, but don’t be surprised if Eduardo, Diaby, or Eboue start, or at least see significant action as substitutes:

Almunia

Sagna-Gallas-Vermaelen-Clichy

Denilson-Song-Fabregas

Bendtner-van Persie-Arshavin

We’ve had 2 great wins in our 2 games so far. Let’s keep that momentum going and avoid this potential stumbling block–especially with Liverpool’s early loss and Manchester United’s slip up against Burnley, a win tomorrow really keeps us at the head of the pack with a game in hand. Also, this will be probably be my last post for a couple of days, and I won’t be able to watch the Portsmouth match–I’m moving to NYC tomorrow, so will be busy with moving, unpacking, and getting settled in over the next few days. But I’ll be back next week to weigh in on whatever’s been going on. And if any of you live up in NYC or are ever in NYC on a weekend when Arsenal is playing, drop me a line and we can meet up at Nevada Smith’s and I can buy you a beer while we cheer on our Gunners.

Other than that, there’s just not much in the way of news. St. Nick is apparently negotiating a new contract, rumors are linking us with Newcastle center back Steven Taylor, who’s young, big, and I think would actually be a decent pick up in terms of providing cover at the position. Hope you all have a great weekend.

UPDATE: I didn’t feel like this deserved its own post, but Wenger has come out and rubbished the recent report that he had agreed to send Cesc to Barcelona next summer. The boss said: “The only thing I can say that the day I agree to sell a player one year in advance, I will not be in this job any more.” Well, he either rubbished the rumors or found a very clever, obtuse way to announce his retirement.

Come on Arsenal.