Manchester City v Potsmouth, September 21, Premier League

Only saw the second half of this one with the first half overlapping with Chelsea v Man U and by then City were already two-nil up. In the second half, Pompey folded to conceded four more and City ended with a massive 6-0 win.

For City, Jo seems to have done the job in the first half and on today’s evidence their line-up seems irresistible. Elano and Ireland in midfield and SWP and Robinho on the flanks with Jo as striker. When things go well, they Samba. There was a lot of class on display in the second half and Mark Hughes has a team which already has a very impressive line-up. Assuming the Arabs turn out to be smart owners, expect them to cause a lot of problems for the big four next season. For this season they should look at achieving consistency and getting results every week. How well they do on that front might determine how many of the current crop remain when the churn starts.

What stunned me was the Portsmouth performance. True their opponents were on fire, but it cannot explain why Pompey gave up all the fight. Even when you are down five-nil, the manager would expect the players to be trying hard enough to save further humiliation which Portsmouth clearly were not. The shoulders had dropped to the ankles and they let City do whatever they wanted. Harry Redknapp will have learnt a few things about his players today and it will be interesting to see how Portsmouth bounce back from this.