Ipswich Town are all but officially relegated from the Premier League. Before kick-off today they were 13 points behind 17th place, with seven matches left in their schedule to wrap up the 2024-25 season.
One of their four PL wins this season was against Chelsea. Still it was a match at their home turf in which Liam Delap and Chelsea academy graduate Omari Hutchinson combined to make our lives hell.
Things should have been different at Stamford Bridge. That wasn’t the case in the first half, as Chelsea created plenty of chances and didn’t do much with them, while Ipswich buried it twice with the two good ones they got.
Returning from the tunnels in the second half, Chelsea got one back only second afterwards. With Marc Cucurella threatening to get a glimpse of the ball at the far post, Axel Tuanzebe decided to get ahead of him. His anticipation became an own goal.
The goal gave Chelsea a much needed injection of hope, and it looked like it was only a matter of time before we scored the tying goal. It took us more than 30 minutes after the first one to do it, but it eventually arrived via Jadon Sancho.
It was a slugfest afterwards, with both sides pushing for the winning goal. But neither had the quality to take the three points home, and they had to split it instead.
- Trevoh Chalobah at right-back, and Noni Madueke returns to a Premier League starting lineup.
- As a team whose strength should be keeping the ball on feet and on the ground while avoiding the “aerial” game, you have to wonder why we insist so much on cutbacks and crosses as our main attacking play.
- Our current attacking prowess already makes things hard enough for us. Things get only worse when the backline doesn’t contribute, as it was the case in the first half.
- Much better effort overall in the second half, although you can argue we shouldn’t be in a two-goal hole against Ipswich in the first place.
- Next up: Legia Warsaw at home for the UEFA Conference League quarterfinal second leg.
- KTBFFH
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