Six-hit City in stunning form

Man City 6, Portsmouth 0

LIFE doesn’t get much better for long-suffering fans of Manchester City, both on and off the pitch.

After decades in the footballing wilderness these are heady days as yesterday’s events at Eastlands underlined.

City recorded their biggest-ever victory in the Barclays Premier League, a brilliant effort against Portsmouth in which six different players scored the goals.

And supporters also learned that the takeover of the club by the new mega-rich backers from Abu Dhabi will be completed tomorrow.

Chairman designate Khaldoon Al Mubarak was in the directors box to witness a victory which will send shockwaves throughout football.

“I didn’t see that coming as we had won our three previous games and had been in great form,” explained Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp.

And to reinforce what a shock it was, Redknapp referred to last season when his side had the second best away record in the Premier League.

It could conceivably have been an even greater margin of victory as City produced a level of performance manager Mark Hughes says they must strive to reproduce on a weekly basis.

But City, inspired by Brazilians Robinho and Jo and home-produced gems such as Shaun Wright-Phillips and a resurgent Stephen Ireland, have certainly raised the bar, and hopefully not to unrealistic levels.

That is something Hughes is acutely aware of as he said: “We have won 6-0 against a top Premier League club and we have to be realistic because that is not going to happen every week, though we will be trying to do it.

“When it became 3–0 and 4-0, and the game was effectively over, I thought we might sit back as I was mindful of the efforts of Thursday (they played in Cyprus against Omonia Nicosia in the UEFA Cup).

“But we never allowed our level of performance to drop from the start. And the only reason I made substitutions was to bring players off for standing ovations which they deserved.”

Hughes described City’s display as his best as a club manager by a “country mile” as they produced some magical attacking play - though, equally important for Hughes, was the clean sheet.

City could have been two ahead before Jo raced on to a Robinho pass and rounded keeper David James to score an opening goal made in its entirety in Brazil.

And it was soon doubled when James fumbled an Elano corner and even central defender Richard Dunn got in on to the scoring act.

Ireland played a starring role in the third and fourth goals, lofting the ball over the Pompey defence for Jo to set up Robinho for an exquisite third and then playing an inch perfect through ball for Wright-Phllips to find the net with a ferocious shot for a player of such diminutive size.

Elano and Robinho started the move for the fifth goal as Wright-Phillips’ cheeky back heel released substitute Ched Evans for his first senior goal for City.

And there was another first for City when Gelson Fernandes, another substitute, scored the sixth after James again failed to deal with a low cross, this time from left-back Javier Garrido.