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Ipswich Town’s rude awakening to life back in the Premier League continued with a 4-1 defeat at Manchester City - the first time since 2006/07 they’ve opened a league campaign with two successive defeat. PL winners four seasons running against last season's Championship runners-up - if football was played on paper, there was only ever likely to be one victor here.
But thankfully for Ipswich, football is played on grass and they stunned the Etihad by incredibly taking the lead when summer recruit Sammie Szmodics was played through on goal and squeezed an effort through the legs of Ederson. Their joy was only short-lived though, as Leif Davis felled Savinho in the area, allowing Erling Haaland to step forward from the penalty spot and stroke home a swift leveler.
Unfortunately for the Tractor Boys, they were being dealt a harsh footballing lesson here as just a matter of moments later they trailed, not just by one, but by two. Arijanet Muric was caught in possession for City’s second when he was robbed of the ball on the edge of his own area and Kevin De Bruyne finished into an empty net. All that came a matter of seconds before De Bruyne fed Haaland, who rounded Muric to fire home his second of the afternoon and leave Kieran McKenna’s side shell-shocked.
In truth, Kieran McKenna’s men were lucky not to concede a fourth with both Rico Lewis and De Bruyne cannoning efforts against the bar. The second half was a bit of a non-event in comparison with the first, but for Ipswich that was something of a blessing as it spared their blushes a little. Most of the crowd by then were baying for the introduction of Ilkay Gundoğan for his second Manchester City debut, yet in the midst of waiting for his introduction, the hosts should’ve added a fourth, but Muric went some way to redeeming himself when a flying stop denied Haaland a hat-trick.
The City faithful eventually got their wish 20 minutes from time Pep Guardiola introduced their returning German star, bringing more than 50,000 Citizens to their feet. All in all it was a rather chastening afternoon for Ipswich, who have certainly had a baptism of fire in the PL with their opening games coming against Liverpool and City. For the hosts, their afternoon was capped off in the dying moments when Haaland finally claimed the match ball - the perfect way to wrap up City’s 18th win from their last 19 PL games against newly-promoted opposition.
