Alex Palmer made three late vital stops to both end Chelsea’s comeback hopes and dent their top-five ambitions with the Blues forced to settle for a 2-2 draw against Ipswich at Stamford Bridge despite a second-half fight-back.
Palmer kept out Trevoh Chalobah, Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez as Chelsea fought to add a third after a second-half Axel Tuanzebe own goal and a Jadon Sancho stunner cancelled out Ipswich’s first-half double. In denying the comeback, Chelsea failed to respond after their top-five rivals Aston Villa and Manchester City recorded resounding victories this week.
Newcastle’s victory over Manchester United later on Sunday leaves Chelsea sixth, a point off City, who sit in the final Champions League qualifying berth.
In a game full of twists and turns, Kieran Mckenna was forced to field a starting XI without Liam Delap, but it was Chelsea – who are keen on signing the 22-year-old marksman – who were in greater need of his goal-scoring prowess as they failed to translate their early ascendancy into an opening goal.
In a dominant first 18 minutes, Chelsea’s relentless pressure had seen Nicolas Jackson hit the post. Palmer was called upon to make a couple of strong saves to keep out close-range efforts from Levi Colwill and Noni Madueke.
In a flash, Chelsea would quickly rue their missed chances as a rare move beyond the halfway line for Ipswich saw the Tractor Boys take the lead against the run of play, with Julio Enciso poking home from a Ben Johnson cutback.
The blueprint was then laid out for McKenna. Ipswich continued to see very little of the ball but carried a threat on the counter.
Ipswich’s second, in a similar vein to the first, had Chelsea rocked by a transition, this time Johnson heading home from an Enciso cross.
Johnson had the newly introduced semi-automated offside technology to thank as Enciso, who was deemed offside by the assistant, was confirmed to be onside after a brief check.
After a presumably scathing team talk, Chelsea burst out of the blocks to half the deficit fewer than 20 seconds into the second half when Marc Cucurella’s effort was turned in by Tuanzebe.
Sancho, off the bench, then curled home his first Stamford Bridge goal for Chelsea, which gave Maresca hope. But their hopes were in vain, as Cole Palmer watched his namesake palm away an effort before the Ipswich keeper repeated the feat at the death to keep out Fernandez from close range.
Ipswich can take pride from their performance but their hopes for survival continue to dwindle after Wolves pulled further away with victory over Tottenham.
Maresca: We lost confidence
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca:
“We lost a little bit of confidence because we conceded, probably because of the environment, and this is the moment that you have to continue doing the right things, and don’t change plans.
“Also, because we are a team that most of the time start by playing short [from] our goal kick, the second goal we decide to play long because of the environment, and we concede the second one. You have to be strong, you have to continue with the things that you are doing.
“At this stage of the season against these kind of teams, if you are able to score the first one, the game completely changes in your sight. Unfortunately, we missed chances, and then we conceded, and I think the team was not good enough in different things, and this is where we need to take one step forward and react in the right way.”
McKenna: A point to be proud of
Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna:
“In the first half we were not at our best with the ball but we executed fantastically well to get the goals. Showed some really good defensive resilience but also needed a little bit of luck as well. In the second half I thought we played better than the first. It was a really even game, we went toe-to-toe with Chelsea.
“The chances just didn’t go our way. Disappointing to concede from kick-off. Our reaction was excellent. We looked as likely to get the third goal as they did to get the second. Then, in the end stages, both teams were going for the winner. It’s huge testament to the group to come here and compete like that. We’d have loved to get the win but it’s a point to be proud of.
“I understand why we’re here. It’s the level of the jump, the level of the competition and it’s really hard to win games. In our position you have to do almost everything right. We know the scale of the challenge. Today we gave a good account of ourselves. We could have more [points] but what we’re showing is what we have to show over the last weeks of the season.”
Story of the match in stats…
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