Manchester City 3 Portsmouth 1:  Manchester City took some of the heat off under-pressure manager Sven-Goran Eriksson with a convincing victory over 10-man Portsmouth.

Eriksson was hugely displeased at City owner Thaksin Shinawatra's comments that he will "review" the club at the end of the season, and his players gave their answer to the Thai tycoon in the best possible manner.

Inspired by the powerful former Portsmouth striker Benjani Mwaruwari, City took full advantage of an off-day for the Portsmouth defence to keep themselves in with a chance of qualifying for Europe.

Whether that will suffice for Thaksin has yet to be seen, and Eriksson certainly needs to shore up his team in key areas, specifically in defence and central midfield, if he keeps his position for next season.

Benjani scored the third to seal victory and end Portsmouth's hopes of a comeback. Darius Vassell had opened the scoring after a bad mix-up between David James and Sol Campbell allowed Stephen Ireland to cross to the back post and Martin Petrov made it 2-0 before John Utaka's goal gave the visitors hope again.

But after Herman Hreidarsson's controversial dismissal for a cynical block on Vassell, Portsmouth were up against it and after some bad luck — they hit both posts — Benjani ended the contest.

The Zimbabwean insisted he was never tempted to celebrate his goal against the team he was reluctant to leave in January.

"I knew already that I wouldn't celebrate if I scored so it was easy not to," he said afterwards. "It means a lot against an old team. I respect them and it's nice to score against them."