As happened on the opening weekend of 2025/26, we had two newly promoted clubs winning in Gameweek 1.
Following Hull City’s superb victory over Manchester United earlier in the day, Ipswich Town followed suit with a last-gasp 2-1 win over Sunderland.
Here are our Scout Notes from the game.
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WRITING ON THE WALL FOR £4.0M O’NIEN?
As expected, Luke O’Nien (£4.0m) got the nod at centre-half for Sunderland on Saturday. Nordi Mukiele (£5.5m) and Omar Alderete (£5.0m) were only on the bench for the Black Cats, with pre-season fitness issues the reason for their omissions.
O’Nien was always going to be a risk when those two returned. The hope, for owners, was that he laid down such a marker on the opening day that Régis Le Bris wouldn’t be able to drop him.
Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened.
O’Nien gave the ball away and failed with his recovery challenge for Ipswich’s opener, then almost repeated the trick later on; he opted for a tactical foul and a yellow card on the second occasion.
His afternoon ended midway through the second half, with Alderete replacing him. While the Paraguayan himself played an errant pass for the hosts’ winner, you wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a change Le Bris makes from the start next weekend.
HUME ‘OOP’ – AND UNLUCKY TO BLANK
Elsewhere on the Sunderland defender front, Thomas Meunier’s (£4.5m) return from injury meant that Trai Hume (£4.5m) was pushed forward into an ‘out of position’ right-wing slot. That’s something we saw plenty of in pre-season.
While he blanked, he really should have had an assist to his name. Brian Brobbey (£6.0m) wasted a good opportunity when racing onto a Hume pass from halfway, while Noah Sadiki (£5.0m) forced a fine save with a close-range header from the Northern Irishman’s cross. Opta classed both as ‘big chances’.
Brobbey should have scored again later on, indeed, but once again took too long, this time from a Reinildo (£4.5m) pass. A bit of early-season rust, perhaps.
As for Enzo Le Fee (£6.0m), he ended with no shots or chances created to his name. He did see plenty of the ball (in the first half especially), at least, with Sunderland often looking to go through him when going forward. Alas, his intelligent through-balls went to waste this time.
NOT MUCH £4.0M DEFENDER JOY BUT O’SHEA BANKS DEFCON
Above: Players in Ipswich v Sunderland sorted by DefCons
‘El Boostico’ failed to deliver the goods. All of the £4.0m defenders’ clean sheets were busted, while none could compensate with attacking returns.
Dara O’Shea (£4.0m) did, at least, bank defensive contribution points (DefCon). He smashed through the threshold, in fact, despite the apparent disadvantage of playing at right-back (usually, you’d expect centre-halves to top the pile).
The encouraging thing is that he was still tasked with a lot of defensive work in central positions; perhaps no surprise given that Leif Davis (£4.0m) was pushing forward and even inverting into midfield on the other side. After a shaky start, O’Shea grew into the role and a lot of the contributions came late on, earning his manager’s praise.
“Dara, our captain, I mean, he was excellent. Dara, at the end of the game, to block things and keep pushing the group.” – Gary O’Neil
ENCISO INJURY FEARS DOWNPLAYED
O’Neil handed starts to four summer signings in attack, meaning £4.5m forward Sindre Walle Egeli was forced to make do with a late cameo.
And Walle Egeli won’t have any expectations of reclaiming the ‘10’ role, with Julio Enciso (£5.5m) superb on his ‘second’ Ipswich debut. The Paraguayan did brilliantly to assist the Tractor Boys’ first goal, and nearly scored himself. Two efforts went over, while a brilliant flicked attempt went narrowly wide.
He limped off in the second half but there doesn’t seem to be any concern.
“Thankfully, it’s just cramp. We need to get him up to speed with the rest of the lads because our boys have been through a tough pre-season. The three [fitness] issues we’ve had in Abdul Fatawu, Florentino Luis and Julio have all come from players that have joined us late. So, it’s important that we get them up to speed.” – Gary O’Neil on Julio Enciso
Enciso has the tough task of competing against possible penalty takers and DefCon machines in the £5.5m midfielder bracket.
Emersonn (£5.5m) doesn’t have nearly as many competitors in the corresponding forward pool. He was on hand to score Ipswich’s opener, while he nearly returned the favour for Enciso later. A real handful even for the rugged Dan Ballard (£5.0m), no Ipswich player could better his totals for shots (three), chances created (two) or xGI (0.88). One to monitor.
Sub Jack Clarke (£5.5m) curled in Ipswich’s winner after Nilson Angulo (£5.0m) had equalised with a superb free-kick.
