a stunning display: Man City crushes Portsmouth 6-0

By: j | September 21st, 2008

In a stunning, if not shocking display, Mark Hughes Manchester City devastated a hapless Portsmouth. The match itself was a highlight film of the capabilities of the present squad that equally left you scratching your head with how ill prepared Portsmouth was.

With the club’s new chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak watching, the match turned into a goal celebration with Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stephen Ireland pushing the attack forward in waves. It didn’t take too long for David James nightmare afternoon to begin as Robinho dealt Jô a perfect pass, which he easily put behind the ‘keeper. Seven minutes later a bumbled Elano corner fell in-front of Richard Dunne, who all of a sudden became a goal-mouth predator and it was 2-0 City. At that stage it seemed City put the brakes on and weren’t used to killing off an opponent but twelve minutes after the break, that was forgotten with the first of four goals in twenty-six minutes. To the delight of the home crowd Robinho added the third goal off a perfect combination of Stephen Ireland to Jô. A streaking Shaun Wright-Phillips scored from an impossible angle to the inside post of David James; a goal strike worth watching over and one of the best examples of marksmanship you’ll see in quite some time. Wales international Ched Evans added his name to the score line in a highlight film goal set up by Robinho and Elano. The scoring was finally completely when a bobbled Shaun Wright-Phillips was bobbled by David James and fell to Fernandes Gelson to made no mistake with it for the goal.

After the match Mark Hughes commented:

“We saw the right pass at the right time on many occasions.”

“We have set a standard for ourselves. It was a perfect day.”

“I thought Stephen Ireland was the outstanding player.”

“It was the best performance by one of my teams by a country mile.”

Man City returns to action next Saturday against Wigan.

Man City: Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta, Micah Richards, Ricard Dunne, Javier Garrido, Vincent Kompany, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland (Gelson 77), Elano, Robinho (Daniel Sturridge 85), Jô (Ched Evans 71).
Subs Not Used: Kasper Schmeichel, Michael Ball, Dietmar Hamann, Tal Ben-Haim.

Goals: Jô 13, Dunne 20, Robinho 57, Wright-Phillips 68, Evans 78, Gelson 83.

Portsmouth: James, Johnson (Pamarot 82), Distin, Campbell, Belhadj, Diarra, Davis (Diop 33), Kaboul (Utaka 46), Armand Traore, Crouch, Defoe.
Subs Not Used: Ashdown, Hreidarsson, Mvuemba, Kanu.