Walter Pandiani almost gaves Blues a famous victory at Stamford Bridge last weekend.

Seven minutes! Our beloved Blues were just seven minutes from an amazing victory over runaway Premiership leaders Chelsea.

Steve Bruce got his own tactics spot on against the tactical maestro, Jose Mourinho.

We battled, harried and more than held our own in the midfield battle against Joe Cole and Frank Lampard. And we also forced PFA Player of the Year contender John Terry into making one or two uncharacteristic mistakes, one of which could easily have seen him sent off for handball as he attempted to block Walter Pandiani's fiercely struck goal.

Didier Drogba's late effort put paid to what would have been a famous victory. Who would have thought before the game that so many Bluenoses would have been so hugely disappointed to return from Stamford Bridge with just a point against the Champions League semi-finalists?

Now ahead to this weekend as Blues prepare to welcome Pompey to St. Andrew's. As a newcomer to England, Pompey's latest boss Alain Perrin will know little about the Premiership other than what he has seen on the television. But that didn't stop the Frenchman leading a struggling Pompey side to victory in his first game in charge against Charlton last weekend. Pompey demolished Alan Curbishley's Charlton 4-2 in a six-goal thriller.

New Pompey boss Alain Perrin takes charge of his second game on Saturday.

It's obviously a worry that Perrin's side have suddenly found their shooting boots just before they make the trip up from the South Coast this weekend. But the reality is that Charlton have problems at the back and they seem to be going through their usual end of season blip again. The good news is that Blues have a more than decent back line, and should prove to be much more difficult to break down than Curbishley's south London side were.

Having said that after watching the Pompey v Charlton game last weekend it was clear to see Aiyegbeni Yakubu, Diomansy Kamara and Lomana Tresor LuaLua are all big threats. With their pace (although it looks like Yakubu is ruled out through injury) they can turn defenders inside out, so we mustn't let them have too much space to run into or let them get round the back of our defence.

One thing I've also noticed with the Blues is that after raising our game against one of the top teams like Chelsea or Man United, we often end up shooting ourselves in the foot in our next league outing against one of the 'lesser' teams.

If we are to climb the league table we must start showing the sort of consistency that teams like Everton do. The Merseysiders' regularly beat those sides around and below them, as their league position testifies. With respect to the Merseysiders I don't think their squad is any better than ours, so we should have ambitions to beat teams like Pompey.  

This fixture may also see the return of another former Bluenose in Aliou Cisse. The Senegalese international played a vital role in Blues retaining our

Aliou Cisse could figure for Pompey against Blues.

Premiership status in our first season back in the top flight. If you cast your mind back he did a lot of hard for the team, but as competition for places increased he found it difficult to maintain a first team place and was eventually forced to move on.

Prediction wise this week I'm going to show how optimistic I am. Last week I said I thought we would lose, displaying a head prediction (defeat) and heart prediction (victory), I'm going to use the same tactic again to see if it works¬ good on a professional level, but if it mentally helps us think we will get maximum points then what the hell!

Fan View Prediction:
Head Prediction: Away victory
Heart Prediction: Home victory

Keep Right On
Leigh Whitehouse