Chelsea vs Ipswich preview as Chelsea remain in the hunt for Champions League football. Coming into this gameweek, they sit level with Newcastle in fourth place. However, the Magpies have a game in hand. They also only sit a point above Man City and two points ahead of Aston Villa in seventh in the race for Europe. Chelsea have only scored one goal in their last three Premier League matches, picking up a win, a draw and a loss.
Ipswich come into the game off the back of defeat to Wolves who sit one place above them in 16th. The defeat leaves them 12 points adrift from safety with seven games remaining and therefore essentially confirms their relegation.
Chelsea vs Ipswich Matchup Statistics
- Omari Hutchinson spent last season on loan from Chelsea at Ipswich in the Championship before making the €22.5m permanent move at the beginning of the season.
- Ipswich won the meeting earlier in the year 2-0, with former player Hutchinson scoring the second and current Chelsea transfer target, Liam Delap, scoring the opener.
- McKenna and Maresca have faced off three times. McKenna obviously won the game earlier in the year between Chelsea and Ipswich, but in the Championship, when Maresca was in charge of Leicester, both games ended as 1-1 draws.
Team statistics
- Chelsea have kept four clean sheets in their last five Premier League games and could make it three league clean sheets in a row for the first time under Maresca.
- Since December 21st, only five teams have scored fewer goals than Chelsea, before this point they were the top scorers in the league.
- Opta have given Chelsea a 43.4% chance of finishing within the top five, which would guarantee Champions League football next season. Ipswich have been given a 99.8% after their defeat to Wolves last weekend.
- Chelsea are undefeated at home since Boxing Day having won their last six games in all competitions at Stamford Bridge.
- Ipswich have conceded the third most goals in the league this season and have also scored the third least. Only Leicester are below in both metrics.
- Ipswich have the opportunity to win both games against Chelsea. No newly promoted side has done the double over the Blues since Charlton in 2000-01.
- 13 of Ipswich’s 20 Premier League points have come away from home this season and three of the seven points at home came in the reverse fixture against Chelsea.
Player statistics
- Liam Delap has scored 12 Premier League goals. In the history of the Premier League, only three players have scored more goals in their debut season for a promoted side under 22 years old. Those players were Alan Shearer, Andy Cole and Yakubu.
- Cole Palmer is Chelsea’s top scorer in the Premier League with 14 goals. However, he has not scored in the last nine Premier League games and only has one assist in that time.
- Enzo has been involved in each of Chelsea’s Premier League goals since the start of March. However, that has only been two goals (One goal, one assist).
- Noni Madueke scored twice after coming off the bench at halftime for Cole Palmer against Legia Warsaw. When the winger came on it was still 0-0.