Ipswich 0-2 Liverpool (Jota 60’, Salah 65’)
PORTMAN ROAD – Ramsey, Robson, Burley – McKenna? Onto the turnstiles Ipswich Town have emblazoned their own Mount Rushmore – the pantheon of greats who turned the club into a major top-flight force, their eyes looking down on a cacophonous hive of fans who have been waiting 22 years for this moment.
They are rattling through the gates to see a game of Premier League football; for thousands of younger fans, this is a promised land they have only ever known as an inaccessible TV opera.
From the Sir Bobby Robson Stand hangs the rallying cry: “The future is now.” With Wes Burns racing forward and Omari Hutchinson wriggling through what was at first a woefully static Liverpool midfield, they made clear from the first kick that they are ready to seize the day – and have no intention of watering down the firebrand football that got them here in the first place.
It took an hour for Liverpool to put a pin in the magic swirling around Portman Road. By then, Ipswich were unlocked too easily by Trent Alexander-Arnold down the right, before Mo Salah teed up Diogo Jota so that the Portuguese could atone for a horror miss moments earlier.
Once the tap was turned on, Salah – who has never failed to score or assist on the opening weekend of the season – promptly made it two, with the ball pinging urgently around the box and played into his path by an unfortunate Leif Davis. The alarm bells will have been ringing all around as Liverpool clicked into gear and – in the second half – put in exactly the kind of performance which hints at why they appointed Arne Slot.
Ipswich have a balance to strike between committing to the counter-press that has seen them thrive in League One and the Championship and lacking control.
There may well be more such moments. Ten of the starting XI were making their Premier League debuts, though Davis largely neutralised Salah and Jota in the first half. Had he not been narrowly caught offside, Ipswich might have had a penalty too for Virgil van Dijk bringing down Liam Delap. Diaz’s own appeal shortly afterwards at the other end was more theatrical but had less merit.
In the long run, it may well have been for the best that the back four were eventually forced to dig in for large stretches, a reality check nipping in the bud any naivety about the challenge ahead of them.
This has to be a season of defying the doubters, of which there will be many. While Liverpool have not made a single senior addition under Slot, in McKenna’s new deal Ipswich arguably clinched the signing of the summer. The prospect of losing him to Brighton & Hove Albion or Chelsea was very real but keeping him has given them a fighting chance.
Last season, all three newly promoted teams went straight back down – nobody benefits if that happens again. That is why Ipswich will have supporters willing them on far beyond the thunderous 30,014 who squeezed into one of the Premier League’s smallest grounds.
It is in everyone’s interests – except a handful of clubs who fear being dragged into a relegation battle themselves – that they can compete. They have not done a Sheffield United, selling their best players in the build-up and resigning themselves to relegation.
All the indications are that the goals will come, helped by the arrival of Sammie Szmodics, an excellent bit of business at just £9m after a return of 27 goals from 44 games at Blackburn Rovers last season.
Ali Al-Hamadi has already made history and could have made even more when he forced Alisson into a one-handed save. Playing for AFC Wimbledon in January in League Two, he is now the first Iraqi to play in the Premier League.
The club have evidently been forking out elsewhere too, with swish media facilities adapted after promotion and so new in some quarters you can still scent the freshest licks of paint. Even the bins outside have been adapted: “Ipswich – a Premier League town.”
Keeping it that way is a formidable task, though not an impossible one. McKenna has already drawn comparisons with Eddie Howe, whose attacking credentials would not be numbed at Bournemouth after winning the Championship – and for several seasons, it worked.
There is no let-up in the fixture list. Next come Manchester City at the Etihad, another occasion on which it will be difficult to measure exactly how viable a proposition this Ipswich side are – but they can at least take plenty of heart from their opener.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/V7mD8sK
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