city thrashed pompey

Manchester City's players put Portsmouth to the sword with a scintillating display in a 6-0 win that was timed perfectly to impress their watching new chairman.

AlexLivesey/GettyImages

Jo runs to celebrate with Robinho

With Khaldoon Al Mubarak in attendance, City - inspired by their superstar Brazilian Robinho - ripped Portsmouth apart with a six-goal spectacular.

Jo, Richard Dunne, Robinho and Shaun Wright-Phillips - plus substitutes Ched Evans and Gelson Fernandes - each scored in a stunning all-round display.

• Hughes delighted with super show

It was humiliation for Portsmouth, and in particular a match to forget for goalkeeper David James - who was partly culpable for several of the home side's goals.

Mark Hughes, the City manager, has been promised time to break into the top four by the club's new owners from Abu Dhabi. But after this, expectations will be sky-high.

Pompey boss Harry Redknapp started off with an unfashionable 3-5-2 line-up and must have regretted it as City pulled the defence apart from the start.

James had already made two good saves, from Robinho and Wright-Phillips, when City went ahead in the 13th minute.

Jo, a handful for the centre-backs all afternoon, was the man to get it - as Al Mubarak applauded from the directors' box.

Robinho slid a pass that caught Younes Kaboul flat-footed to find his fellow Brazilian. As James came racing out, Jo rounded him easily and side-footed the ball into the empty net.

Peter Crouch glanced a header over the bar from a corner as Portsmouth tried to hit back quickly, but almost immediately were 2-0 down.

James had to shoulder some of the blame for this one. Elano's clever corner towards the near post nearly caught him out, and he could only parry the ball for Dunne to bundle home from close range.

Portsmouth then had a spell where they managed to match City and create several chances, but wasted their opportunities to claw their way back.

Crouch came within inches, slamming Glen Johnson's low centre just the wrong side of the post; then Kaboul spooned a shot over from 12 yards, after Sol Campbell had headed down Nadir Belhadj's free-kick.

Campbell saw his goal-bound header blocked on the line by Pablo Zabaleta, before Lassana Diarra's shot was diverted over his own bar by Dunne.

But Robinho could scent his second goal in as many games and the 24-year-old nearly scored with some outrageous skill, only to be denied by a block.

Within seconds of the re-start, Jermain Defoe burst through on goal ahead of Micah Richards but finished woefully - poking his shot wide ... and that was that for Portsmouth.

City's third goal arrived in the 57th minute - and to general delight in the stadium, the scorer was that man Robinho. It was made by the irrepressible Stephen Ireland, who robbed Armand Traore and floated a ball over the top for Jo to knock into his compatriot's path - and Robinho finished expertly with a low strike into the corner.

The fourth was if anything even more popular with the City fans, as Wright-Phillips made it on to the scoresheet. Ireland was the provider again, delivering a perfect pass for Wright-Phillips to run on to and hammer a shot from a narrow angle past James at his near post.

Evans made it five after Robinho's step-overs flummoxed Campbell; Wright-Phillips executed a Brazilian-style back-heel, and the 19-year-old Welshman completed the job neatly from eight yards out.

Portsmouth were so shell-shocked it was no surprise when the sixth arrived. Robinho's cross from the left was dangerous; James just managed to stop Wright-Phillips from getting to it, but Fernandes followed up to slam the loose ball home.

Robinho was given a thunderous standing ovation when he was substituted with a few minutes remaining, before Evans crashed a volley a couple of yards too high.

Only the final whistle brought relief for Portsmouth.

Hughes delighted with super show

Mark Hughes saluted his six-shooters after Manchester City crushed Portsmouth to signal the start of the new era at Eastlands.

He said: "It was the best performance by one of my teams by a country mile. If you had to pick any day to impress people today was the day to do it.

"From start to finish our drive and determination and our ability to pick the right pass and create chances was evident for all to see. It was a fantastic day for us.

"Portsmouth are a good side but today they were not allowed to play their game.''

Jo, Richard Dunne, Robinho and Shaun Wright-Phillips plus substitutes Ched Evans and Gelson Fernandes each scored in a stunning all-round display.

Hughes picked out Robinho, Stephen Ireland, Wright-Phillips and Vincent Kompany as the star performers.

He added: "There were outstanding personal performances within a great team performance.

"Stephen Ireland again was exceptional and has been for many weeks, and we hope we can sustain him.

"Robinho will grab headlines and rightly so and there were good performances by Vincent and Shaun and a clean sheet as well.

"In the end I was taking people off to allow them a standing ovation - and that's the only reason I made the substitutions to be perfectly honest.''

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp was shell-shocked and admitted his defence and goalkeeper David James had an awful game.

Redknapp said: "I'm bitterly disappointed - I didn't see that coming as we were a team on form on the back of three fantastic wins .

"We gave away two terrible goals in the first half, but towards the end of the first half we had some chances and thought we could get back into this game.

"Jermain Defoe had a chance just after the break and then they played a pass and there were two of them running through on our goal. Our defensive play today was abysmal.''

Redknapp said he was not envious about Hughes spending power, and insisted his defence had played out of character.

He added: "It was a chapter of errors and they did not have much to say for themselves afterwards.

"Tomorrow we will have a meeting and look at all the goals and where we went wrong.'

source: soccernet