Goodison park, the home of Everton, is never an easy place to pick up points, especially with Harry Rednap's Portsmouth coming off back to back defeats to Manchester United and Chelsea.  However Everton have not got off to the best start either, already having been beaten at home once by Blackburn.

Both teams lined up in a 4-4-2 formation, but Portsmouth soon switched into a 3-5-2 formation with Johnson and Traore pushing well up on the wings.  This formation switch seemed to have Everton confused for the most part of the first half and Portsmouth were able to dominate the midfield.

Much has been said about how good the Crouch-Defoe partnership could be, but until this game we had not seen much out of the pair.  It stunned Everton fans when Crouch knocked the ball to Defoe, who seemed to have no space at all in the box, only for him to wriggle enough room to pull the trigger and put Pompy a goal up.

Everton tried to get back into the game, and Arteta looked certain to score when David James produced an amazing driving save from close range.  Everton continued to push Portsmouth and again were denied on the line by a great clearance from Younes Kaboul.

Portsmouth also had their fair share of possession and a nice one-two between Johnson and Defoe left Johnson with only the keeper to beat; which he calmly did, putting Portsmouth two goals ahead.

Two minutes into the second half Everton were awarded a dubious penalty when Johnson bundled James Vague over in the box.  Yakubu stepped up to take the kick, only to have David James produce yet another great save to deny the goal.

As the second half went on it was clear to see that Portsmouth had decided to defend their lead, and try to hit Everton on the counter-attack.  Normally when a team sets out to defend it can kill the pace of the game, but the way Portsmouth defend always seems to be by the seat of their pants.

Defoe, and/or Crouch sealed the victory when Defoe's shot hit the crossbar, possibly bouncing over the line, but Crouch came in and headed the ball into the net just to make sure.  Who will officially claim the goal remains to be seen.

Although Everton did create a lot of chances, there just didn't seem to be any way past David James, who was in unbeatable form, surely securing his spot as the England #1 goal keeper.   Portsmouth will be very happy with this result and their next few fixtures look considerably more inviting.

Overall Match Rating: 3.5 out of 5