England, Premier League:
Portsmouth FC – Blackburn Rovers (Sun 30 Nov, '08, 16:00)
Blackburn is going to win this one, and current
odds around 4.00 are just too good to be missed - they'll sure drop towards the game.
Last season we saw Blackburn one place above
Portsmouth at 7th position in England's
Premier League, now they are down in 19th position while Portsmouth is still on 8th. But things are going to change...
This Sunday the Rovers travel south to Portsmouth after
they got beaten in Tottenham. But what a game it was: Blackburn played beautiful soccer, I'd say, there was some great action. Tottenham got lucky to get away with a 1:0 win, while Blackburn played from 39th minute on with just 10 men, since defender
Martin Olsson was sent off. However, they had some nice chances and never gave up. Blackburn manager
Paul Ince after the match: »We played some good stuff against a very good Tottenham side at their ground and we silenced their crowd for most of the game. The effort put in was unbelievable, the performance was outstanding. I thought we were going to salvage something. Had the ball been in the right place we would have got a point.« Well, well...
Portsmouth will come into the game after an
UEFA Cup match against
AC Milan and they will have to play Germany's
VfL Wolfsburg soon after on December 4th in that very same European Cup contest. I can't imagine them concentrating everything against Blackburn. Additional to other injured players their leading striker will be out for some time, as it seems: 26-year-old
Jermain Defoe (7 goals) might need surgery as his calf injury got worse. Without him
Peter Crouch might look just too lonely up front.
Blackburn will know their chances, as they did in the last two games when playing in Portsmouth: They won both.
The Rovers will have to play next in
Manchester against
United (League Cup) and afterwards against Liverpool (Premier League) at home, and so I await them to perform well against Portsmouth.
Especially
Roque Santa Cruz should be good enough for a goal, if not for two.
I will have more detailed team news here later - but the Blackburn Rovers stay most definitely to be the bet in this one against Portsmouth, for value odds.
EDIT:
TEAM NEWS
Portsmouth's striker Jermain Defoe and midfielder Niko Kranjcar have shaken off calf and ankle injuries respectively and are back in contention for Portsmouth. Skipper Sol Campbell (toe) is likely to miss out again, as is Kanu who picked up a groin injury in the 2-2 draw with AC Milan, but David Nugent returns.
Blackburn's Martin Olsson is suspended but Stephen Warnock has served a ban and will slot in at left-back.
Vince Grella is likely to remain sidelined with a calf problem.
Source:
BBC Sports
Tottenham played UEFA Cup in Holland this week, winning 1:0 against NEC, while Everton should be still unhappy with their last loss in Wigan. And even though I do admit that manager Harry Redknapp brought new sense to the Hotspurs, I think a rested and angry Everton is too much for them. One shouldn't forget that Everton won the last two games at the White Hart Lane stadium, with two goals advantage in both of them (2:0, 3:1), and on Sunday they will win this one, too - even though not in handicap -1.
Everton's away team has a positive goal statistic in the English Premier League so far this season, 1.714:1.429. This is by all means nothing one should ignore, as it is even better than Tottenham's 1:0.857 at home. And I also take into consideration that the Spurs are missing their injured defender trio Vedran Corluka, Ledley King and Alan Hutton.
