Chelsea end year beaten by brilliant Ipswich at passionate Portman Road
Ipswich Town (1) 2 v Chelsea (0) 0
Delap (pen) 12
Hutchinson 53
By Kaz Mochlinski at Portman Road
Premier League
Matchweek 19
Chelsea succumbed to the most disappointing defeat of Enzo Maresca’s first season as head coach, giving Ipswich Town the most memorable night that they have had at Portman Road for a couple of decades.
The Tractor Boys secured a fabulous first home win since their return to the Premier League, through goals from Liam Delap with a first half penalty and ex-Chelsea player Omari Hutchinson after half-time.
It completed an unexpectedly poor end to the year for the Blues, extending their winless run to three matches in the last nine days, and dropping them down to fourth place in the Premier League table.
Having won eight games in a row in all competitions after the last international break, Chelsea have suddenly suffered a scoreless draw at Everton plus two consecutive losses, against Fulham on Boxing Day and now away to Ipswich.
Four days following Fulham’s first victory at Stamford Bridge since 1979, Ipswich managed a similarly historic feat, beating Chelsea for the first time since 1993, to hand Maresca his first back-to-back defeats in the job.
The West London side had an opportunity to finish 2024 in second place in the league and cut Liverpool’s lead at the top, but they were left frustrated by not being able to overcome a team rooted in the relegation zone.
Moreover, there will inevitably be a furious internal inquest into two awful errors in defence giving away the two goals, with Filip Jørgensen at fault for the opener, and Axel Disasi making the mistake to double Ipswich’s advantage.
In an infrequently occurring coincidence, both Maresca and the Ipswich manager, Kieran McKenna, changed their starting goalkeepers for this encounter, with Jørgensen replacing Robert Sánchez, and Christian Walton coming in for Arijanet Muric.
There could hardly have been two more contrasting outcomes, with the returning Walton being given the man-of-the-match award for a series of superb saves which helped Ipswich to end 14 games and three and a half months without a clean sheet.
Whereas all of Jørgensen’s impressive interventions subsequently could not make up for his early lapse which resulted in an Ipswich penalty and turned out to be the key moment in the match, as Chelsea never got back on level terms again after conceding.
Just nine minutes had been played when Jens Cajuste’s elusiveness made space on the Ipswich left for Leif Davis, who produced a prime example of his telepathic link up with Delap, sending his teammate clear into the penalty area.
Delap and Jørgensen both slid for the ball, the Ipswich player reached it first, taking it past the goalkeeper, who lifted his trailing leg and made clear contact with the centre-forward, bringing him down.
The referee John Brooks had little hesitation in giving a penalty, and, with Portman Road enveloped in a cacophony of noise, Delap got up to take the spot kick himself, dispatching it powerfully just out of reach of Jørgensen’s dive.
If the atmosphere at the famous old stadium had been excited at kick-off, it lifted still further with the prospect of some Monday night magic developing, giving the home team extra energy in their efforts and giving the game the feel of a cup tie.
And, having scored with 11 minutes gone in the first half, Ipswich again caught out Chelsea early on in the second half by getting a goal only eight minutes after half-time, with Delap this time turning into the provider.
After winning and then dispatching the penalty for the first goal, Delap was the grateful recipient of Disasi’s calamitously misplaced pass to run through again into the penalty box, before checking back and setting up Hutchinson, who had timed getting up in support perfectly.
The 21-year-old directed his low shot ideally across the diving goalkeeper and into the corner of the net, making a moment to savour for the player bought by Ipswich from Chelsea in the summer for a club record fee estimated to be between £18-22.5 million.
Hutchinson had celebrated scoring for Chelsea in the past with a backflip, and he repeated the move this time to the uncontained delight of the Portman Road crowd, most of whom gave the impression that they were on the verge of joining him in somersaulting.
Delap had a goal and an assist, plus he was a persistent threat to the visitors’ defence, bringing excellent saves out of Jørgensen to repeatedly deny him, but still he was not selected by the home fans as the best player on the pitch, such was the performance of Walton at the other end.
Chelsea had 76% possession to Ipswich’s 24% by the final whistle, but could not convert it into goals despite systematically carving out openings, and they were continuously vulnerable to the hosts’ fast counter-attacking throughout a mesmerising 90 minutes.
Ipswich Town: (4-2-3-1) Walton - O’Shea, Woolfenden, Greaves, Davis - Morsy, Cajuste (Phillips 77) - Burns (Johnson 86), Hutchinson (Taylor 94), Broadhead (Szmodics 77) - Delap (Al-Hamadi 94)
Chelsea: (4-2-3-1) Jørgensen - Disasi (Gusto 77), Tosin Adarabioyo, Colwill, Cucurella - Fernández, Caicedo - Madueke (Neto 77), Palmer, João Félix (Jackson 55) - Nkunku (Sancho 65)
Attendance: 29,968
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