Premier League - Robinho inspires rampant City

Eurosport - Mon, 22 Sep 09:09:00 2008

Robinho scored a goal and created two more as Manchester City thrashed Portsmouth 6-0 in the Premier League at Eastlands.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 Premier League - Robinho leaps as he celebrates with his Manchester City team-mates during the thrashing of Portsmouth - 0

The Premier League's record signing provided a masterclass in creative, incisive attacking play, and Pompey had no answer to his speed of mind and body.

The Brazilian supplied an inch-perfect pass for Jo to open the scoring on 13 minutes before Richard Dunne added a second shortly afterwards.

Robinho then scored with a cool finish on 57 minutes, Shaun Wright-Phillips added a fourth, substitute Ched Evans made it five finishing off a remarkable goal, and Gelson Fernandes completed the rout.

Despite the mammoth £32.5 million fee paid to bring Robinho to Eastlands, some doubted whether the quicksilver forward could really succeed in the fast, physical Premier League.

The early signs suggest Robinho's impact will be spectacular.

Last weekend against Chelsea he scored a free-kick and dictated play for City, but a wonky radar meant he surrendered possession as often as he found a team-mate.

This time he added precision to his dizzying array of skills, spraying visionary passes and beating defenders with almost embarrassing ease.

As early as the third minute, he had David James at full stretch with a pinpoint shot, but shortly afterwards he turned provider, laying on a superb diagonal through ball for Jo, who rounded James and finished left-footed.

The pair combined with intuitive brilliance, allowing Jo to start showing why City paid £18m for his services.

City soon extended their lead following a 20th-minute Elano corner. James patted the ball weakly away and captain Dunne pounced to bundle the ball home.

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp quickly brought Papa Bouba Diop and John Utaka off the bench but, if anything, they made things worse.

Robinho himself made it three just before the hour. Stephen Ireland drilled a diagonal ball that Jo brought down and laid off to the former Real Madrid man, who slotted home from the edge of the box.

Cue a samba dancing celebration in which Ireland attempted, unsuccessfully, to match the moves of Brazilian trio Robinho, Jo and Elano.

Robinho has now scored in both Premier League games and, even more importantly, created a buzz of dizzying excitement around the blue half of Manchester.

As with City legend Georgi Kinkladze, every time Robinho gets on the ball there is a very real possibility of something extraordinary happening.

Portsmouth were in tatters, and Wright-Phillips took full advantage, running onto another excellent Ireland through-ball and smashing past James at his near post.

More humiliation was to come after 78 minutes. Robinho bamboozled his man on the left side before crossing low for Wright-Phillips. He backheeled brilliantly into the path of Evans whose finish was low and true. Sensational.

Another James howler allowed Gelson to score the final goal. The keeper failed to deal with a low Javier Garrido cross and cleared only to the edge of the box, where Gelson reacted quickest to finish off a devastating performance.

City's new owners have made much of their ambition to qualify for the Champions League this season. After this demolition job, a top-four finish does not seem so far-fetched.

Alex Chick / Eurosport

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  1. I am very chuffed with the blues display, it's a pity though that we cannot do this with home grown players like them over the road, Van der Sar, rooney, evra, hargreaves, anderson, tevez, ronaldo, vidic, nani, berbatov, need I go on? They spend £30 million every year, it's not city's fault they cannot do it more often. Cheer up rednecks!

    From Jon, on Mon 22 Sep 8:56AM

  2. lol @ all the doubters!

    the blue moon is dawning!

    From Karl, on Mon 22 Sep 8:39AM

  3. GOD I FEEL MORE SORRY FOR ME MISSES SHE GOT DAVID JAMES IN HER SUN DREAM TEAM LOL..

    From SUE, on Mon 22 Sep 8:07AM

  4. Emmanuel you said nobody made any intelligent comments and then you quoted THE SUN!!

    From Dean O, on Mon 22 Sep 8:05AM

  5. As a pompey diehard, i have to admit the best team won on the day, but they could have let us have just one goal as a boobie prize lol. Well done city, your players run us ragged and we just had no ideas, we made stupid defensve errors and could'nt get the ball forward as we like to do. Mind you i think we need to ask a single qestion; WHY CROUCH!! hes a useless waste of £11million, every time he sees the ball he goes in the other direction.So well done city, i just hope a few other teams get the same kind of hammering, as it proves to be an eye opener. im sure it will wake up the team (along with rednapp visiting each player to watch a DVD of the whole nightmar'e, and a frame by frame dissection to why that player failed so miserably.) Still well bounce back next week, so well done city and PLAY UP POMPEY, POMPEY PLAY UP!!!!!!

    From atheist crusader, on Mon 22 Sep 7:37AM

  6. But six-nil ... SIX NIL!

    From Segun, on Mon 22 Sep 7:32AM

  7. "Robinho was instrumental as City recorded their BEST-EVER PREMIER LEAGUE WIN as a bright new era dawns at Middle Eastlands" ___ The SUN

    From Segun, on Mon 22 Sep 7:29AM

  8. People HERE dont GIVE INTELLIGENT COMMENTS ---- iT'S A SHAME!

    From Segun, on Mon 22 Sep 5:34AM

  9. blue moon

    From jasonturkozu, on Mon 22 Sep 5:24AM

  10. best game... i really enjoy it.. keep it up man. city

    From Izal, on Mon 22 Sep 3:15AM

  11. to peter m You're absolutely correct and honest!If by any chance you're a Scotsman better yet; because the Scottish league is 10 times better then the EPL considering all the bloody money that they spend...............

    From dante, on Mon 22 Sep 1:06AM

  12. to peter m You're absolutely correct and honest!If by any chance you're a Scotsman better yet; because the Scottish league is 10 times better then the EPL considering all the bloody money that they spend...............

    From dante, on Mon 22 Sep 1:03AM

  13. top epl mgrs are scottish,spanish,italian,brasilian,irish and french .where are the english mgrs? pls give me an answer without being nasty and uncouth!

    From dante, on Mon 22 Sep 12:56AM

  14. MIKE @ 108.

    Lol....you really think he will want to reside over years in the wilderness?

    'Cos that's where Manure are heading.

    From D, on Mon 22 Sep 12:51AM

  15. top epl mgrs are scottish,spanish,italian,brasilian,irish .where are the english mgrs? pls give me an answer without being nasty and uncouth!

    From dante, on Mon 22 Sep 12:49AM

  16. KEITH R.

    Thanks for showing just how BITTER you rags really are.

    Jealous? Of course you aren't.

    Snigger.

    From D, on Mon 22 Sep 12:48AM

  17. chan1957 - your thoughts ARE as OLD and DERISORY as you.

    Manure is the past.

    CITY is the future.

    Get with it.

    From D, on Mon 22 Sep 12:46AM

  18. the epl is rubbish viva La Liga and SERIE A

    From dante, on Mon 22 Sep 12:43AM

  19. Today I saw three fantastic matches from SERIE A AC MILAN v LAZIO 4-1 INTER v TORINO 3-1 and JUVENTUS winning 1-0 what fantastic matches, great football,truly three magnifique games.The second matches from La Liga were superb watching Barca and Real come out victorious was a pleasure.The EPL matches were a dissappointement dull and boring matches.Let's stop with this nonsense that the EPL is the best League. The match between Manchester City and Portsmouth was like seeing a Premier League team playing a second division the Liverpool and the Manchester United v Chelsea were awful beside the four top teams in the EPL there is nothing to say so stop bragging about the great EPL !!

    From dante, on Mon 22 Sep 12:42AM

  20. Today I saw three fantastic matches from SERIE A AC MILAN v LAZIO 4-1 INTER v TORINO 3-1 and JUVENTUS winning 1-0 what fantastic matches, great football,truly three magnifique games.The second matches from La Liga were superb watching Barca and Real come out victorious was a pleasure.The EPL matches were a dissappointement dull and boring matches.Let's stop with this nonsense that the EPL is the best League. The match between Manchester City and Portsmouth was like seeing a Premier League team playing a second division the Liverpool and the Manchester United v Chelsea were awful beside the four top teams in the EPL there is nothing to say so stop bragging about the great EPL !!

    From dante, on Mon 22 Sep 12:40AM
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