Ipswich Town v Chelsea: Manager Kieran McKenna urges players to embrace another tough Premier League challenge when Enzo Maresca’s side visit Portman Road
Manager Kieran McKenna has encouraged his Ipswich Town players to embrace challenges like tomorrow’s home encounter against Chelsea (7.45pm).
The visit of the third-placed Blues to Portman Road comes hot on the heels of the trip to Arsenal on Friday evening, which McKenna’s side lost 1-0 thanks to a goal scored by Germany international Kai Havertz midway through the first half.
That result has left the 19th-placed Tractor Boys three points plus goal difference away from safety heading into what will mark the halfway stage of the Premier League season with the clash against Chelsea.
But rather than fear another side packed full of big-money signings and international footballers, McKenna is eager for his squad to relish such occasions.
He said: “It’s a tough test but a great game. These tough tests, let’s get it right, coming to the Emirates Stadium to play against Arsenal at Christmas is a positive, it’s not something to fear, it’s not something to feel hesitant about or feel anything other than feel excited about, and Chelsea at home’s the same.
“We know they’re a top side having a very good season but it’s the challenges that we want. Last home game of 2024, let’s go and give it everything we’ve go.”
Despite giving a good account of themselves last time out in north London, McKenna has conceded that the close proximity of the two festive fixtures is likely to lead to some rotation within his starting line-up.
The Northern Irishman added: “I think usually when you’ve got Friday night and Monday night, there’s likely to be some changes. We’ll assess that over the weekend.”
The match will also allow McKenna to chance to once again do battle with his opposite number Enzo Maresca.
The two went head-to-head in last season’s Championship – a duel that the Italian eventually won after guiding Leicester City to the title, with Ipswich a point behind in the second automatic spot.
And McKenna has been impressed by the way that Maresca has gone about his work since finalising a summer switch to the Stamford Bridge hotseat.
“A lot of the structures in possession in particular are the same, but now, of course, he’s working a different calibre of player – although Leicester had very good players as well – which makes it an even bigger challenge,” he said.
“Without seeing the insides of it, he seems to have done very, very well. They went about it a little bit differently but they’ve recruited some fantastic players for quite a few transfer windows now, some fantastic young players, and seem to have really found their way with that and Enzo’s done a really good job coaching them and getting them into the structure that he likes and turning them into a good team.
“To be fair, the second half of last season, (former manager) Mauricio (Pochettino) had really good results there as well and you could see the talent that was there, you could see the talent was coming through, and they had really good results in the second half of last season.
“But I think Enzo’s taken that on to another level this year and he seems to have settled in very well.”
Ipswich have failed to win any of their previous nine meetings with Chelsea in all competitions – their last success came back in August 1993 when Ian Marshall’s goal was enough to seal a 1-0 victory.