All 20 Premier League teams’ starts to the season are analysed in our Half-Term Report series, with newly-promoted Ipswich Town up next.
Gary O’Neil’s side have experienced a fairly decent return to the top flight, winning two and losing three of their opening five matches.
Six points leave the Tractor Boys 11th in the Premier League during the international break.
- READ MORE: The FPL half-term report: Aston Villa
- READ MORE: The FPL half-term report: Brentford
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RESULTS SO FAR
| GW | Result | Ipswich’s xG | Ipswich’s xGC |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ipswich 2-1 Sunderland | 1.80 | 0.66 |
| 2 | Man United 5-2 Ipswich | 2.06 | 4.77 |
| 3 | Ipswich 0-2 Liverpool | 0.75 | 0.69 |
| 4 | Crystal Palace 2-3 Ipswich | 1.68 | 0.62 |
| 5 | Everton 1-0 Ipswich | 1.44 | 2.24 |
Ipswich have made an encouraging return to the Premier League, winning two of their opening five matches.
The underlying numbers suggest they deserved both victories. They produced 1.88 xG while allowing just 0.66 xGC against Sunderland, before another strong display saw them win 3-2 at Crystal Palace. The Eagles were down to 10 men, of course.
The Tractor Boys have looked fairly tight in both home games, conceding less than 0.7 xG to both Sunderland and Liverpool. Game-state in the latter case is perhaps important contextually, as the Reds went into an early 2-0 lead and didn’t need to attack with abandon thereafter.
O’Neil’s troops have impressively generated at least 1.4 xG in four of their five fixtures.
XG/XGC RANK V OTHER TEAMS
| Total | Rank v other clubs | |
|---|---|---|
| xG | 7.81 | 9th |
| xGC | 8.98 | 16th |
Ipswich’s attacking numbers have been encouraging.
They’re actually an impressive fourth for open-play xG (7.32), ahead of Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.
The Tractor Boys do remain in the bottom four for shots conceded (86), big chances conceded (17) and open-play xG conceded (7.6), chiefly thanks to some leaky away displays.
Indeed, a whopping 15 of their 17 big chances conceded have come on the road.
LINE-UP LESSONS
Three Ipswich defenders have played every minute so far: Dara O’Shea (£4.0m), Issa Diop (£4.0m) and Leif Davis (£4.0m).
Jacob Greaves (£4.0m) and Kjell Scherpen (£4.5m) did start the first four games but lost their places to Abdoul Ouattara (£4.0m) and Christian Walton (£4.4m) last time out. O’Shea moved from right-back to centre-half as a result.
Further forward, striker Emersonn (£5.5m), right-winger Abdul Fatawu (£5.4m), number 10 Julio Enciso (£5.5m) and central midfielder Saša Lukić (£4.9m) have started every match. Enciso has seen considerably more minutes than Fatawu and Emersonn, though, with the latter two regularly coming off early. Fatawu is suspended in Gameweek 6, too.
Exequiel Palacios (£5.0m) has established himself alongside Lukic in the engine room since his late-August move.
On the left flank, Daizen Maeda (£5.3m) started three matches before Jack Clarke (£5.4m) replaced him.
SET-PIECE TAKERS
| Ipswich Town | |
|---|---|
| Corners | Lukić (8), Fatawu (8), Núñez (1), Philogene-Bidace (1) |
| Crosses from free-kicks | Fatawu (1), Lukić (1), Davis (1) |
| Shots from direct free-kicks | n/a |
| Penalties | n/a |
Lukić and Fatawu have shared the majority of Ipswich’s corners, taking eight each across the opening five Gameweeks.
There hasn’t been much to separate them from free-kicks either, while Davis has also delivered one crossed free-kick.
Ipswich are yet to take a penalty, so we don’t have anything to go on from the spot. Clarke was the first choice in 2025/26.
TOP PLAYERS FOR DEFCONS
