Premier League: This is Where it All Begins for McKenna’s Ipswich

Ipswich Town vs Fulham

As baptisms of fire go, Ipswich Town – back in the Premier League for the first time in 22 years – could hardly have asked for a harder start.

A home game against last season’s third placed team, Liverpool, was a tough enough opener but to then follow it up with a trip to the reigning champions, Manchester City, must have had manager Kieran McKenna raising his eyes to the heavens.

Yet in McKenna, Ipswich have a special talent and, after working wonders over the past two and a half years, he is far from deterred.

In many ways, it is only now that the 2024/25 campaign begins for boys from East Anglia.

Talking Points

For those of you who don’t know, McKenna has already performed quite a feat in guiding Ipswich from League One, where they had lingered for four years, straight to the sharp end of a brutal Championship promotion fight and straight to the top flight.

Barely any outsiders expected them to last the course in an automatic promotion race against Leicester, Leeds and Southampton, all of whom could fuel their campaigns with Premier League resources. Yet they did and some!

Despite many suitors, McKenna also stayed loyal to the club this summer and has now set his sights on Premier League highlights.

To be fair, Ipswich far from disgraced themselves in defeats against the Merseysiders (0-2) and City (4-1).

In that latter game, Sammie Szmodics – the Championship’s top scorer last term with 27 goals for Blackburn – provided a glimpse of how he could prove a key addition in their survival bid as he scored just seven minutes into his full debut.

They then conceded three goals in four minutes to swiftly end any hopes of an upset but were much improved defensively in the second half, and now need to take that improvement, and focus, into their next matches.

Indeed, they could do far worse than look at the example set by their next opponents, Fulham, as how to adapt in the top flight.

When the Cottagers were first promoted two seasons ago, I thought they were destined to go straight back down, just as they had on their previous two stints.

I could not have been more wrong and, despite losing key players two summers on the bounce, manager Marco Silva is already proving his worth once again.

After a disciplined opening day showing at Old Trafford, they got off the mark at home to Leicester last Saturday when Emile Smith Rowe, who was signed from Arsenal for in the region of £27 million, found the net on his home debut.

Silva said before that match that the club still needed to sign a forward and he is right but he will be encouraged by the striker’s instinct displayed by Smith-Rowe and, indeed, Alex Iwobi who grabbed the winner against the Foxes.

Alex Iwobi scored in Fulham's last Premier League match — Fulham’s Alex Iwobi in action against Wolverhampton Wanderers

I had already been impressed by the likes of USA international Antonee Robinson, goalkeeper Bern Leno and the recent return of Ryan Sessegnon and Fulham have continued to strengthen since then by bringing in Norwegian midfielder Sander Berge from Burnley and Danish defender Joachim Andersen from Crystal Palace.

Both players are expected to be included in the squad for the visit to Portman Road, where the hosts themselves are hopeful of involving two new recruits, after announcing agreements are in place to sign Jack Clarke from Sunderland and Burnley defender Dara O’Shea.

History

Not until 1961 did these sides meet in the top flight.

In fact, only eight of their 31 meetings have been at the top level of English football.

The first ever game was in Division Two in October 1954 when Fulham were 4-2 winners at Portman Road.

Indeed, it took eight years and nine games until the ‘Tractor Boys’ as they are now affectionately known got the better of the Cottagers.

That was in October 1962 when Ipswich won 2-1 at Craven Cottage.

Their inaugural Premier League meeting in October 2001 finished 1-1 as Barry Hayles and Jermaine Wright traded goals in West London.

They have not met in the league since the Championship in 2018 when a Joe Garner goal was cancelled out and overturned as Fulham scored four times in a brutal seven minutes to record a 4-1 success, as Sessegnon and Aboubakar Kamara grabbed a brace apiece.

They have met twice in the League Cup since then, most recently in the fourth round last November when Harry Wilson, Rodrigo Muniz and Tom Cairney were on target in a 3-1 win at Portman Road.