The League table shows Saturday’s match to be between two of the three worst teams in the Premier League, as third-bottom City host rock-bottom Portsmouth. The visitors have lost eight of their nine game so far, yet can be backed as high as 13/8 (Boylesports) to rack up a ninth defeat at the weekend, while their only points so far came from a win at Wolves – 19/10 (Totesport) is on offer if you fancy them doubling their season’s total.

It’s hard to make a case for either side really. SkyBet currently offer the longest price on the draw at 12/5, which one suspects will attract plenty of interest. In April, the sides played out a turgid 0-0 draw at the Circle. A repeat would require both sides to keep only their second clean sheets of the season, but given the frayed nerves that’ll be in evidence, plus City’s painfully laboured attacking efforts on Monday, it looks a reasonable punt at 10/1 (SportingBet). Covering it with under 2.5 goals in the game (4/5, generally available) may not be a bad idea either.

With both sides already in relegation trouble, it’s interesting to look longer term too. Both sides are odds-on to go down (City 1/2, Portsmouth 8/13), while unsurprisingly the shortest odds to finish 20th are also reserved for these two sides: 7/4 being available on either. Oh, and the two managers involved, Messrs Brown and Hart, are also leading the “Sack Race”, joint 5/2 favourites to be the next Premier League manager to lose his job.

Cheery stuff, eh?

Once upon a time, news of a City fixture being shown on live television was a cause for despair, quickly followed by a hefty punt on whoever we’d be playing. Then along came Phils Parkinson and Brown, and now it’s another thing we take in our stride.

That said, our recent televised outings haven’t produced a clutch of happy outcomes. Assuming we don’t count the Asia Trophy (a contentious issue for we obsessive ground-tickers), it’s been a while since any of the Sky, ESPN or Setanta cameras broadcast images of Tiger success live to the nation. Fulham on Monday evening represents a reasonable opportunity to correct this.

Not that we can exactly count upon victory, for our opponents have a good team and a fine manager. The omens aren’t too bad though – Fulham provided our only double of last season, both secured with late goals. It’s interesting to seek inspiration from them. City are 2/1 (Skybet) to score the game’s last goal and 25/1 to win from behind (BlueSQ). Hmm.

Fulham’s mixed start to the season has seen them score just six goals in seven games, which means 4/1 (Paddy Power) on the Tigers keeping a first clean sheet on the road since, err, Fulham away in March may offer some value.

Much of the focus will be on Jimmy Bullard, who could make his first City start since his £5m transfer from Fulham. He may not start – but if he does, 18/1 can be found on him scoring first, 7/1 to score at any time or a rather optimistic 500/1 to score a hat-trick (Paddy Power)…