Opposition Preview: Ipswich Town

Tomorrow afternoon, Spurs will take to the field for their final game before the international break, as they welcome newly promoted Ipswich Town to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for a 14:00 GMT kick off.

After Wolverhampton Wanderers overcame Southampton 2-0 earlier on today, Ipswich are now the only club in the Premier League not to have won a game so far this season. Thank goodness there is no recent precedent for Spurs giving a side their first win of the season.

So, what can we expect from tomorrow’s visitors?

In truth, they have been a bit unfortunate not to have picked up a win before now. They were seconds away from beating Leicester City at home last time out. Controversially, Ipswich were denied a penalty, which then lead to Kalvin Phillips being sent off in the same sequence. Had the penalty been awarded, they would almost certainly have a win to their name.

Ipswich are managed by former Spurs academy coach Kieran McKenna, who took over the club in late 2021, whilst the club were languishing in the bottom half of League One. Within two and a half years, he had got them up into the Premier League, in one of the best jobs English football has seen over the last decade.

 Defensively, it has been a tough start to life in the Premier League for Ipswich, conceding 21 goals in 10 games, keeping just one clean sheet all season – albeit in a solid 0-0 draw away to Brighton and Hove Albion.

Whilst their 10 goals scored is fairly run of the mill, they do have dangermen in attack. Liam Delap has scored five of those goals, and is the clear dangerman for the Tractor boys. Left-back Leif Davis has created seven big chances in the league so far, more than any Spurs player to date. He also scored a sublime volley in the draw with Leicester last week.

That said, he is quite poor defensively, and can be caught out of position on a regular basis. That right hand side triangle of Porro – Kulusevski – Johnson could look to exploit that throughout the game.

As well as Delap and Davis, danger men include Sammie Szmodics, who scored against Manchester City and Brentford, as well as former Spurs winger Jack Clarke. Captain Sam Morsy is one of a number of players that were there in League One, and scored in stoppage time to secure a point against Southampton back in September.

This will not be as easy a game as the league table suggests, but there is still no excuse for Spurs not to bounce back from the defeat at Galatasaray with all three points here.