Ipswich Town take on Southampton, at St Mary's, in a Premier League clash this afternoon. Stuart Watson previews the action.
RIVALRY RESUMES
Ipswich did the double over Southampton on the way to securing automatic promotion in the Championship last season. It shouldn’t be forgotten how big an achievement that was.
When the sides faced off at St Mary’s almost a year ago to the day, the Saints had just spent 11 seasons in the top-flight, while Town had just been in League One for four years. Southampton’s 20-man squad cost close to £140m in transfer fees, while Ipswich’s cost around £9m.
The Blues, however, showed all sides of their game to record a statement 1-0 win. The winning goal came from Omari Hutchinson on what was his first senior league start. When Shea Charles tried to step out the back with the ball in the 30th minute, Hutchinson crunched into a slide tackle, got it back off Conor Chaplin and did superbly to find the bottom corner on the stretch. As the Chelsea loanee produced his now trademark acrobatic celebration, Chaplin (a Portsmouth boy) shushed the home crowd.
Afterwards, I wrote: “If the win at Oakwell back in April was the night we knew promotion was happening, this victory under the lights at St Mary’s might well be the evening we look back on in months to come as the moment we knew Town could mix it with the best a division higher.” And so it proved.
By the time the reverse fixture came around on Easter Monday, it was incredibly tight at the top. Town were first, Leeds were a point behind, Leicester trailed by two with a game in hand, while Southampton were 10 back with two in hand.
Just three days on from a gruelling, backs to the wall for the final half hour, 1-0 win in Blackburn, Town chased shadows against Russell Martin’s slick, possession-based side for much of the opening half and were 2-1 down at the break. Leif Davis had been struggling with illness, Sam Morsy was in the latter stages of his Ramadan fasting, while Kieffer Moore had gone off injured. McKenna’s men, however, once more ran towards adversity.
Nathan Broadhead equalised and visiting full-back James Bree was dismissed in the 85th minute before Jeremy Sarmiento scored a dramatic 97th minute winner to raise the roof. I still get goosebumps thinking about it now. It’s an iconic moment that will be spoken about for years to come.
Southampton went on to finish nine points behind Town, in fourth, and secured promotion via a Play-Off Final win against Leeds at Wembley. Martin says his side used that defeat at Portman Road as motivational fuel and will do so again today.
ALREADY A ‘SIX-POINTER’?
Given the rapid rise, number of summer signings and opposition faced so far, Ipswich can take a lot of encouragement from their opening four Premier League games. The Blues were competitive for decent spells in defeats against Liverpool and Man City, looked the more likely to win when drawing 1-1 at home against Fulham and dug deep to grind out a 0-0 draw at Brighton last weekend.
As McKenna keeps pointing out, his team is only going to get better as the weeks and months go by. The Blues won’t want to go too long without registering a league win though. The next two games after this one are Aston Villa (h) and West Ham (a).
By contrast, Southampton have lost all four of their opening league games – 1-0 at Newcastle (not being able to take advantage of facing 10-men for more than an hour), 1-0 at home to Nottingham Forest, 3-1 at Brentford and 3-0 at home to Manchester United (Cameron Archer saw a penalty saved at 0-0).
The Saints then had to make the long trip to Everton on Tuesday night for a Carabao Cup tie that they won on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Will that boost their confidence or affect preparations for today? We’ll see.
All of the above has created a debate as to what would represent a good result for Town this afternoon and whether this can already (in mid-September!) be labelled a relegation ‘six-pointer’.
Southampton are undoubtedly one of the sides that Ipswich stand the most chance of finishing above this season. It shouldn’t be forgotten, however, that the Blues had no right to finish above them last season and still go into this game as underdogs in the eyes of the bookies.
DOWNES’ DECISION
Flynn Downes could easily have been in an Ipswich shirt this afternoon.
The Blues pushed hard to try and bring the combative midfielder back to his boyhood club this summer. A deal was agreed with West Ham, the move got close, but the 25-year-old ultimately opted to rejoin Southampton permanently, for a fee of £18m, following his successful loan spell there.
Downes was excellent in that aforementioned game at Portman Road. I think he’d have been a good fit for McKenna’s project. I didn’t happen though.
Why? Maybe he worried that supporters hadn’t forgiven him for handing in a transfer request back in 2020. He admitted to being ‘wound up’ by a smattering of boos following that game in April. Maybe Saints boss Martin, who said he’d ‘cry himself to sleep’ if Downes didn’t return, pressed a few emotional buttons. It’s probably a mixture of both.
McKenna’s always said he only wants players who are hungry and excited to be at the club. Ultimately, Town ended up signing two international midfielders, Kalvin Phillips and Jens Cajuste, on loan from Man City and Napoli respectively instead.
WHO PLAYS?
This was the team that started at Brighton last weekend: Muric; Tuanzebe, O’Shea, Greaves, Davis; Morsy, Phillips; Burns, Hutchinson, Szmodics; Delap.
I can’t see the selection deviating too much from that. Could Chiedozie Ogbene replace Wes Burns as the pacey, direct-running right-winger? Might the dribbling of Jack Clarke be preferred to the energy and goal threat of Sammie Szmodics?
With everyone now fit, McKenna certainly has options. Having the likes of Conor Chaplin, Nathan Broadhead and George Hirst - all stars of back-to-back promotions - as impact subs is a sign of good depth.
Saints boss Martin made 10 changes to his team in midweek, with young Chelsea loan midfielder Lesley Ugochukwu the only player to keep his place.
The likes of Aaron Ramsdale, Kyle Walker-Peters, Downes, exciting homegrown winger Tyler Dibling, who has just burst on the scene at 18, Portugal U21 international attacker Matheis Fernandes and Ben Brereton-Diaz are among those likely to return to the side.
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