Chelsea end year beaten by brilliant Ipswich at passionate Portman Road
Ipswich Town (1) 2 v Chelsea (0) 0
Delap (pen) 12
Hutchinson 53
By Kaz Mochlinski at Portman Road
Premier League
Matchweek 19
Chelsea succumbed to the most disappointing defeat of Enzo Maresca’s first season as head coach, while giving Ipswich Town as memorable a night as they have had at Portman Road for a couple of decades.
The Tractor Boys recorded a fabulous first home win since their return to the Premier League, through goals from Liam Delap with a first half penalty and ex-Chelsea player Omari Hutchinson after half-time.
It completed an unexpectedly poor end to the year for the Blues, extending their winless run to three matches in the last nine days, and dropping them down to fourth place in the Premier League table.
Having won eight games in a row in all competitions after the last international break, Chelsea have suddenly suffered a scoreless draw at Everton plus two consecutive losses, against Fulham on Boxing Day and now away to Ipswich.
Four days following Fulham’s first victory at Stamford Bridge since 1979, Ipswich managed a similarly historic feat, beating Chelsea for the first time since 1993, to hand Maresca his first back-to-back defeats in the job.
The West London side had an opportunity to finish 2024 in second place in the league and cut Liverpool’s lead at the top, but they were left frustrated by not being able to overcome a team rooted in the relegation zone.
Moreover, there will inevitably be a furious internal inquest into two awful errors in defence giving away the two goals, with Filip Jørgensen at fault for the opener, and Axel Disasi making the mistake to double Ipswich’s advantage.
In an infrequently occurring coincidence, both Maresca and the Ipswich manager, Kieran McKenna, changed their starting goalkeepers for this encounter, with Jørgensen replacing Robert Sánchez, and Christian Walton coming in for Arijanet Muric.
There could hardly have been two more contrasting outcomes, with the returning Walton being given the man-of-the-match award for a series of superb saves which helped Ipswich to end 14 games and three and a half months without a clean sheet.
Conversely, all of Jørgensen’s impressive interventions subsequently could not make up for his early lapse which resulted in an Ipswich penalty and turned out to be the key moment in the match, as Chelsea never got back on level terms again after conceding.
Just nine minutes had been played when Jens Cajuste’s elusiveness made space on the Ipswich left for Leif Davis, who produced a prime example of his telepathic link up with Delap, sending his teammate clear into the penalty area.
Delap and Jørgensen both slid for the ball, the Ipswich player reached it first, taking it past the goalkeeper, who lifted his trailing leg and made contact with the centre-forward, seemingly only slightly but sufficiently to bring him down.
The referee John Brooks had little hesitation in giving a penalty, and, with Portman Road enveloped in a cacophony of noise, Delap got up to take the spot kick himself, powering it unstoppably just out of reach of Jørgensen’s dive.
Delap and Cole Palmer had been contemporaries coming through the youth set-up at Manchester City, both under Maresca’s supervision along the way, and both are clearly capable of converting from the penalty spot.
Palmer knows Delap’s preferred penalty technique very well, and could be seen advising Jørgensen ahead of him facing the kick, resulting in the keeper going the right way, even if he could not quite prevent Ipswich from taking the lead.
The atmosphere at the famous old stadium had been excited at kick-off, but it lifted still further with the prospect of some Monday night magic developing, transmitting to the home team extra energy in their efforts and giving the game the feel of a cup tie.
Having scored with 11 minutes gone in the first half, Ipswich again caught out Chelsea early on in the second half by getting a goal only eight minutes after half-time, with Delap this time turning into the provider.
Impressive in winning and then dispatching the penalty for the first goal, Delap was the grateful recipient of Disasi’s calamitously misplaced pass to run through again into the penalty box, before checking back and setting up Hutchinson, whose timing to come up in support could not have been better.
The 21-year-old directed his left-footed low shot ideally across the diving goalkeeper and into the corner of the net, making a moment to savour for the player bought by Ipswich from Chelsea in the summer for a club record fee estimated to be between £18-22.5 million.
Hutchinson had celebrated scoring for Chelsea in the past with a backflip, and he repeated the move this time to the uncontained delight of the Portman Road crowd, most of whom appeared to be on the verge of joining him in somersaulting.
Delap had a goal and an assist, plus he was a persistent threat to the visitors’ defence, bringing excellent saves out of Jørgensen to repeatedly deny him, but still he was not selected by the home fans as the best player on the pitch, such was the performance of Walton at the other end.
Chelsea had 76% possession to Ipswich’s 24% by the final whistle, but could not convert it into goals despite systematically carving out chances to score, and they were continuously vulnerable to the hosts’ fast counter-attacking throughout a mesmerising 90 minutes.
Exactly like he did for the 5-1 win at Southampton, Maresca had tried to give some of the squad players starring in the UEFA Conference League a rare start in the Premier League, but this time, against another team under threat of relegation, it proved less successful.
This was just Jørgensen’s second league appearance, and only the third time that Palmer and João Félix have started together, as Maresca has previously indicated that he views the latter to be providing cover for the former, rather than complimenting his capabilities.
Yet the double danger creatively posed by Palmer and Félix functioned really promisingly at Portman Road, with the Portuguese international coming off the left to ease the burden usually carried by “Cold” Cole to open up the opposition for Chelsea.
The two of them combined almost to perfection in the 24th minute, with Palmer delivering a beautifully-weighted left-footed cross from the right for Félix to run in and finish from close range at the far post, scoring what Chelsea believed to be the equaliser.
Their joy was interrupted by a VAR check, which extended to an unjustifiable three minutes before finding Félix very narrowly offside, in spite of him holding back from making his move as he looked along the line in order to try and remain level with the last defender.
It meant that both the vital VAR interventions went against Chelsea, with the awarding of the Ipswich penalty not overturned, but the visitors’ reply ruled out by the VAR, Michael Oliver, after the goal had been given on the field by the referee and his assistant.
In addition to the two unfavourable VAR decisions, both highly marginal, Chelsea were also twice denied by the woodwork in the first half, each time from typically tremenous left-footed strikes from outside the area by Palmer.
Just prior to the disallowed goal, he curled a free-kick against the post, with Christopher Nkunku reaching the rebound but being unable to force the ball beyond the scrambling goalkeeper.
Then, in stoppage time before the break, Félix cleverly teed up Palmer on the edge of the box for a first-time shot superbly tipped away by Walton from the top corner of the net and onto the crossbar. Of all his significant saves on the night, it was undoubtedly the best.
Having come so close without levelling the score at the end of the first half, Chelsea were denied again right at the beginning of the second period, when Noni Madueke, Enzo Fernández and Félix linked up within two minutes of the restart.
Madueke found Fernández on the right, running into the penalty area to float over a cross towards the far post for Félix to once more believe that he had scored, only for his header to be cleared off the line by Wes Burns.
Félix did not get another chance, as he was the first player sacrificed by Maresca when Chelsea went 2-0 down, making way for Nicolas Jackson. But with him went much of the Blues’ attacking ability to fashion further incursions on Walton’s goal.
Although Palmer is the only player to have created 50 or more scoring opportunities in the Premier League this season, he was unable to find a way through this time, as Ipswich bodies made multiple blocks of the type which in the past John Terry would have loved.
Chelsea also had need of Moisés Caicedo to prevent further embarrassment. Against Ipswich, he showed again why no one in the Premier League has made more tackles and interceptions combined this season than him, now up at 90 and counting.
It was not sufficient to stop the Blues from losing, and they finished pretty petulantly, picking up avoidable yellow cards, taking their total to 100 in 2024, the most in the Premier League. Having received 108 in 2023, Chelsea became the first side to collect 100 or more yellows in two different years.
For Ipswich this was a night that they will long remember, as they celebrated their first Premier League win at Portman Road since beating Middlesbrough in April 2002. Remarkably, six of the starting XI securing this special success had played for the club in League One.
The three points did not get Ipswich out of relegation zone, but they provide a possible path towards survival, with an acknowledgment before the match that achieving adequate results at home will be crucial if the Tractor Boys are to have any chance of staying up.
And this victory was even more essential after the manner in which Ipswich had lost their last two games at Portman Road. They led Bournemouth until the 87th minute before being beaten by a 95th minute goal, followed by a complete capitulation to Newcastle United 0-4.
“It’s a special night for the club, for the players, and fans” enthused McKenna. “To get one over the line at home, to do it against a team like Chelsea, in a night game, the last in 2024, is special.”
He could not contain his delight, as he confirmed: “It’s one of the best achievements. To beat a team like Chelsea is right up there. We’ve had some incredible games here, but in terms of individual games and a win at Portman Road, it’s our best one.”
Ipswich Town: (4-2-3-1) Walton - O’Shea, Woolfenden, Greaves, Davis - Morsy, Cajuste (Phillips 77) - Burns (Johnson 86), Hutchinson (Taylor 94), Broadhead (Szmodics 77) - Delap (Al-Hamadi 94)
Chelsea: (4-2-3-1) Jørgensen - Disasi (Gusto 77), Tosin Adarabioyo, Colwill, Cucurella - Fernández, Caicedo - Madueke (Neto 77), Palmer, João Félix (Jackson 55) - Nkunku (Sancho 65)
Attendance: 29,968
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