Written by BillyTheKid

After our seventh win in a row in Prague, the Cherries are back in the Premier League and playing away again. They travel to Suffolk, where their opponents are Ipswich Town on Sunday at 2 pm; the game is also on Sky Sports Cricket. Ipswich were automatically promoted from the Championship in second place.

Ipswich v AFC Bournemouth

Ipswich Win

Draw

AFCB Win

Their manager at the time was Kieran McKenna, but at the end of the season he decided to take a break from football. It was reported recently that he had taken up a position with UEFA as a technical Observer. His former manager’s job has gone to former AFCB and Wolves manager Gary O’Neil.

Gary O’Neil left his former club, Strasbourg, to return to the Premier League as the new manager of Ipswich Town. His side, after 9 games, had a mixed start; they are on 11 points. On a stat on MOTD, 18 sides promoted from the Championship haven’t been relegated since 2010-11, after winning 9 games and getting 11 points. Hull City also on 11 points.

At home, the Tractor Boys in their opening game in the Premier League beat Sunderland 2-1, and their only other win was against Fulham by the same score. They have drawn 1-1 with Nottingham Forest and been beaten once against Liverpool 0-2.

Away from home, they beat Crystal Palace 2-3. They drew 2-2 with Hull City in their most recent game. Ipswich Town have lost 3 games; their heaviest defeat of the season so far was 5-2 against Manchester United. The other two losses were against Everton 1-0 and the other Manchester club, City, finishing 3-2.

The last time our club visited Portman Road was in December of the 2024-25 season. Kieran McKenna was their manager, and it was the season they were relegated. Ipswich Town took the lead through Conor Chaplin nearly halfway through the first half, and that was how it remained at half-time. Two late goals saved the Cherries who were heading for defeat; the first goal was from Enas Unal and 5 minutes into injury time, Dango Ouattara scored the winner.

In our away league games against Ipswich Town, AFCB have W 4, D 4, L 9.
In all competitions, AFCB have W 12, D 13, L 15.

Ipswich Town Team News
Sasa Lukic has been out injured.

Ipswich Town Player To Watch
Julio Ensisco scored 2 goals in his last two games and has two assists. He looked good away at Hull and scored a cracking goal.

AFCB Team News
Juanlu Sanchez and Alex Toth have been our most recent players added to the injury list. But Alex Scott is getting closer to a return.

AFCB Player To Watch
It has to be Evanilson for me. In his last 7 games, he has scored 6 goals and had 2 assists. All this after going 16 games without a goal. What a player, and he is ours.

The Referee
Simon Hooper is the man in the middle for this game. He took three games of ours last season. Spurs away, Fulham home and the 4-4 thriller away to Manchester United.

Matt Stevenson added…

I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Ipswich. They had two home games (Fulham and Nottm Forest) and two away games (Man C and Hull). Ipswich have gained 2 points, which is a reasonably fair return, having had the lower xG in the first three games, but it being marginally higher in the Hull game. The xG value for goals scored is 4.53, compared with 7 actual goals (so a large overperformance) and Ipswich have conceded 7 goals with xGc estimating 8.23 goals.

Ipswich have had 6 different goal scorers (Encisco with 2) and 4 players have assisted (2 from Ouattara).

The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. Ipswich seem to be set defensively and looking to counterattack.

The following plot compares summary stats of Ipswich and AFCB over the last 4 games. AFCB are ahead in the all the attacking stats, even though Ipswich have outperformed their xG. Defensively, AFCB have been better in all metrics.

Possession and pass completion are comparable. Both teams concede a lot of chances from set pieces.