Liverpool: Liverpool aim to build upon the equal best home record in the Premiership against Portsmouth on Wednesday but look likely to be forced to do so without the services of their Welsh international forward Craig Bellamy due to his on-going court case.


Ideally, Bellamy might have been in line for a start against Harry Redknapp's team given the ineffective performances of Dirk Kuyt and Peter Crouch in Saturday's 1-0 home victory over Manchester City.

But the controversial 27-year-old forward is currently on trial for assault in his native Wales and a delay in proceedings makes it likely he will have to appear in court in Cardiff on Wednesday, making it impractical for Bellamy to reach Anfield in time for the Portsmouth match.

Bellamy has been training with Championship club Cardiff City during the proceedings to maintain his fitness but was called into first team contention on Saturday due to injuries within Rafa Benitez's squad.

However, the Spanish manager has indicated it is more unlikely that he will be involved against Pompey.

"Craig had been away most of the week, it was not easy for him against Manchester City," said Benitez.

"He arrived back in Liverpool only late on Friday. It had taken him several hours, so he did not have too much sleep. This made it almost impossible to use him, " he said.

"I will wait to see how he is during the week with the trial. But he will be in Cardiff for two more days, for sure so maybe involving him against Portsmouth on Wednesday will be difficult,"  he said.

Despite such a lacklustre start to the Premiership season  Liverpool will enter the game 14 points behind leaders Manchester United there has been no problem with their form at Anfield with Benitez's team owning an identical home record to Chelsea's and having collected three more home points than United.

However, their away form has been wretched with Liverpool collecting just two points from an available 21, a record Benitez is anxious to start improving at Wigan on Saturday although he is anxious not to look beyond the Portsmouth encounter.

"I don't know whether our away form is becoming a psychological problem, we will see on Saturday, but first we have to play Portsmouth and, if we can beat them, that will give us more confidence," the Spaniard said.

Redknapp is expected to recall Andy Griffin from his loan spell at Stoke to cover the absence of Dejan Stefanovic, who has had knee surgery, and Matt Taylor, sidelined with a back injury, at Anfield.

"I've not got a left-back on the books. We need to be at full strength to do okay. If we lose three or four, we're in real trouble," said Redknapp, whose side were disappointing in Sunday's 1-0 defeat at Newcastle.

"Matty is struggling with an injury to his back and Dejan is going in for an operation.

"We have lost Glen Johnson who was also very important to us, and you really need your full squad to be fully effective. But on the plus side we have 23 points and are in a healthy position because of the great start we made," he said..

 After a promising start to the season, Portsmouth have slipped to fourth in recent weeks and defeat at Anfield will see the Mersey men leap frog above them.

"We have a hard game at Liverpool coming up on Wednesday and two equally tough ones against Aston Villa and Everton at home but we will keep on going," he said.