Ipswich Town Manager Kieran McKenna was in a challenging mood prior to their trip to Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday.
The tractor boys were beaten 2-1 by Wolverhampton Wanderers to let them 12 points of safety with seven games to go into the Premier League, but according to their manager they are not about to throw the towel.
“Nothing is 100% decided from a competition perspective, but we know that the result of last weekend is likely to make it. It is about 100% focus on ourselves,” he said, as quoted by the Ipswich star.
“We know if we win on Sunday and lose wolves, the perspective can look different.”
McKenna also acknowledged that, although the players were disappointed after last week's result, they did not let their feelings have a good week of preparation.
“We really left the stadium sad, but to be honest we had a good week on the training field,” he said.
“We have had some good meetings about what should look like in the coming weeks. The training has been good.
“Having Chelsea, Arsenal, Newcastle – as much as they are really difficult games – you can be nothing but enthusiastic for such games. The motivation of everyone is really high.”
Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca now hopes that his players will have enough time to rest and recover after their 3-0 win over Legia Warsaw in the quarterfinals first leg of the Europa Conference League on Thursday.
“We have planned the game to try to have our best players for this game, and to give the chance to let players rest and restore energy,” he said in the aftermath of the game, reported by BBC Sport.
“It was a professional achievement and a good result. We were much better in the second half, for various reasons. We have to learn to play different times of games.
“If they lean back, you have to be on the ball faster. You have to shoot from outside the box because they are all in the box. If you don't shoot, it's hard.”
London on Sunday. #Cheips pic.twitter.com/1wx4rxfjzw
– Ippswich Town (@ipswichtown) 10 April 2025
Players to watch
Chelsea – Enzo Fernandez
Fernandez comes here in the back of two goals in three games for Club and Country, including the winner at home at Tottenham Hotspur earlier in the month.
The Argentinian is the fourth highest competition scorer in Chelsea with four goals, while he is also in fourth place for shots (41) and XG (4.98).
Ipswich – Liam Delap
This season, Liam Delap scored 12 Premier League goals for Ipswich-De only players who score so much or more for a promoted club while they are 22 years old or younger in a campaign in the competition his Alan Shearer in 1992-93 (16 for Blackburn), Andy Cole in 1993-94 (44 for PortsMouth).
Delap comes in to have scored in back-to-back competitions for the third time this season. He scored 38.7% of the 31 league goals of Ipswich this season.
Match forecast: Chelsea Win
This season Ipswich has lost 19 of their 31 Premier League matches (W4 D8). The defeat against Chelsea would make 2024-25 the fourth earliest in a competition campaign that they have reached 20 defeats (32 games), after 1954-55 (28), 1963-64 (30) and 1994-95 (31).
The side of Kieran McKenna was hit 2-1 against Wolves last weekend, after initially took the lead, to leave them 12 points of safety with seven more games to go. They have lost nine of their last 11 league matches (W1 D1).
In the meantime, Chelsea has won each of their last five Premier League matches on Stamford Bridge with a total score of 11-2. The blues won more consecutive home competitions in July 2020 under Frank Lampard (six) for the last time in July 2020
They also held a clean slate in four of their last five Premier League matches, as much as their previous 29 in advance. For the first time since February 2023, the blues want to record three consecutive league -hutouts under Graham Potter.
Opta wins probability
Chelsea – 69.6%
Drawing – 16.7%
Ipswich – 13.7%