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40 min: Delap challenges Gabriel on the halfway line and flips backwards over his opponent’s head, landing on his back. Ooyah, oof. Winded. Thankfully he’s back up quickly enough.
38 min: Hutchinson probes down the left. Jesus nudges him from behind. Hutchinson falls on the ball, and expects the free kick to be awarded to Ipswich. But the referee pulls him up for handball. Now it’s Ipswich’s turn to fume in the impotent style.
36 min: Trossard contests an uncontested drop ball in midfield, then races away down the Arsenal left. Johnson is fuming, and the whistle goes to put a stop to Trossard’s grift. Now it’s Mikel Arteta’s turn to be furious. WHY? he asks. WHY? Because, says the referee. The restart is taken properly this time, and Johnson can knock the ball safely back to O’Shea.
34 min: Trossard plays a cute diagonal pass in from the left to release Jesus into the box. Jesus reaches the byline, almost, yet somehow manages to squeeze the ball through Muric at his near post and into the net! That’s an outrageous finish – outrageous goalkeeping as well, in another sense – but the flag pops up for offside.
32 min: Ipswich ping it around the back and beat the Arsenal press. Hutchinson barrels down the inside-right channel before releasing Johnson into space on the overlap. Johnson loops a cross into the mixer. Raya claims, under intense pressure from Delap and Szmodics. That was a fine Ipswich move, their best of the match, even if the sample size isn’t huge.
30 min: Rice takes a shot this time. It’s not a bad one, either, aimed towards the top-left corner from 25 yards and only just flying over the bar. Muric had it covered, just about, but it was a decent effort nonetheless.
29 min: Arsenal continue to hog the ball; Ipswich continue to chase shadows. “I’m going to have a stab at what was intended by Σx ∫ earlier,” writes Paul Bowyer. “If the x was meant to represent ‘times’ then we have ‘Sum’ (represented by uppercase Sigma) ‘times’ ‘integration’ (represented by the old fashioned ∫ symbol). Hence: ‘Sometimes integration can be a problem’.” Help. I’m in too deep. Way over my head.
27 min: As things stand, Arsenal are going into second place tonight.
25 min: So much for Ipswich’s early stand. On the touchline, Kieran McKenna looks slightly dispirited. He’s not yet wearing a thousand-yard stare, though. Five hundred metres maybe.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Ipswich (Havertz 23)
Finally the dam is breached. Trossard turns on the jets and zips past Johnson on the left. He reaches the byline and fires a low cross into the centre. There are four blue shirts in the six-yard box, plus the keeper, but Havertz is the liveliest player in there. He arrives at the far stick, opens his body, and sidefoots into the net. Couldn’t miss. Can’t say it hadn’t been coming.
21 min: Arsenal continue to probe, but there’s no way through. Ipswich are holding their defensive shape. A blue wall across the front of their box. Arsenal’s possession stat has gone up to 92 percent.
19 min: A chance for Rice to shoot from 25 yards. His fans encourage him to do so. He declines, and passes to Gabriel, who miscontrols. It’s been like that for Arsenal so far. The home heroes come again, Timber having a go from distance this time. Straight at Muric, an easy snaffle. Perhaps Rice had a point.
17 min: Ipswich have cleared their first hurdle: they’ve quietened the home fans a bit.
15 min: Rice hits the corner long and Ipswich deal with it easily enough.
14 min: Saliba’s long pass sends Jesus scampering down the right. The ball’s shuttled towards Trossard on the other flank. Trossard comes inside and takes a whack. The shot pings out for a corner. Rice to send it in from the left.
12 min: Arsenal have enjoyed 85 percent possession so far. Ipswich have come the closest, though. Funny old game.
10 min: Arsenal are dominating possession, yet Ipswich will be happy enough with their start. Muric hasn’t had much to do yet, and the visitors are holding their hosts at arm’s length. Meanwhile Julian Borrill replies to Peter Oh: “Both teams might consider January signings, though Σx ∫ can be an issue.” (Guardian simple-folk disclaimer: I have no idea what Σx ∫ means. I hope that’s as clever as it looks.)
8 min: A free kick out on the Arsenal left. The hosts load the Ipswich box. Then Odegaard slaps it straight into first-man Szmodics. That’s uncharacteristically awful from Arsenal’s magic-wand-legged captain. His central defenders, who had made it all the way up the pitch in anticipation of causing bother, will be cursing him.
6 min: … nothing occurs. Rice’s delivery is punched clear by Muric, then Odegaard takes a wild swipe on the edge of the box. He doesn’t connect properly and Ipswich – who have only conceded from corners on two previous occasions this season – clear their lines.
5 min: Martinelli again down the right. His cross is much better this time. He dinks to the far post, where Woolfenden is forced to head behind for a corner, with Jesus lurking. And from the set piece …
3 min: That early Davis cross took a wicked deflection off Timber, and Szmodics wasn’t too far away from converting at the near post with a fresh-air high-kick. That would have put the cat among the pigeons all right, Leicester-at-Anfield style.
1 min: Martinelli counters the Ipswich chance by striding down the right but his cross is too deep. More of this and we’re in for a treat.
22 sec: Ipswich are on the front foot immediately. Phillips wins the ball on the edge of the Arsenal box and feeds Davis down the left. Davis whistles a cross through the six-yard box. Any touch from Szmodics would have resulted in a stunning early goal, but he can’t connect. Arsenal breathe again.
Ipswich get the ball rolling. A good few-evening-pints-in atmosphere at the Emirates!
The teams are out! Arsenal in red, Ipswich blue, and we’ve no idea why Arsenal played in yellow at Wembley in ‘78. It’s a misty evening round Ashburton Grove way. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes. In the meantime, here’s Charles Antaki: “This time last year the Arsenal subs’ bench included Matt Turner, Rob Holding, Cedric Soares, Fabio Vieira, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Amario Cozier-Duberry and Marquinhos. All gone, mostly unlamented. Bench-wise, at least, this team looks different: leave aside the goalkeeping sub Neto, all seem capable of stepping up (indeed most have started games) and all have some air of authority. So … Arsenal have been good (and ruthless) at hiring and firing. So far so good. Results have come, mostly. Trophies, not so much. But, as you say, no need for the drama. Plenty of time.”
It’s an Ipswich game, so here’s the obligatory reference to their most famous fan. “Ed Sheeran is on a well-deserved break from his global Mathematics tour,” begins Peter Oh, “but he must be fretting about how many + points Ipswich will need, to ensure that the end of the season doesn’t = relegation. Their opponent today will always ÷ opinion. Arsenal’s biggest – sign at the moment is the loss of Saka to injury. It’s the bleak midwinter, when such injuries seem to x. I hope this match adds up to something interesting.”
For those desirous of cleansing the aural palate:
This is a rematch of the 1978 FA Cup final, in which Ipswich thrashed Arsenal 1-0. Bobby Robson’s side spent the majority of the match rattling the Arsenal woodwork – Paul Mariner hit the crossbar, while John Wark creamed two long-range efforts off the post – before Roger Osborne finally found the net late on. Osborne was so overcome with excitement and emotion that he fainted and had to be substituted. One of the great FA Cup final performances, underrated outside of Suffolk. Apologies to Arsenal fans, but hey, you’ve enjoyed a fair few others.
Mikel Arteta speaks to Amazon. “We have had an extra day off and good preparation … we have a really difficult match ahead … Bukayo Saka is going to be out for many, many weeks … it is a good opportunity for the rest of the squad to step up … who wants to take more responsibility.”
Kieran McKenna talks to Amazon Prime. “Ben Johnson is a versatile player … there will be phases when we defend as a back five … sometimes a back four … it will be a tough night but hopefully a good night … the reaction [to the 4-0 defeat against Newcastle] has been really good at the training ground … the game got away from us … the first in a while … it’s a new game and a new challenge … we want to take it head on … we have to maintain our culture … we have to adapt and be competitive … it’s been a big journey for our players … last time we fell short, tonight we can go again … we’ve analysed Arsenal as well as we can … we’ll have to see off a lot of set plays.”
Arsenal make two changes to their starting XI after the 5-1 win at Palace. Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard are in; Thomas Partey drops to the bench while Bukayo Saka is hamstrung.
Ipswich make five changes after their 4-0 home loss to Newcastle. Liam Delap, Kalvin Phillips, Ben Johnson, Luke Woolfenden and Jacob Greaves take the places of Harry Clarke, Wes Burns and Conor Chaplin, who are benched, and Cameron Burgess and captain Sam Morsy, who miss out altogether.
The teams
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Odegaard, Rice, Havertz, Trossard, Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli.
Subs: Neto, Tierney, Partey, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Merino, Calafiori, Nwaneri.
Ipswich Town: Muric, O’Shea, Woolfenden, Greaves, Davis, Phillips, Cajuste, Johnson, Hutchinson, Szmodics, Delap.
Subs: Walton, Harrison Clarke, Burns, Chaplin, Taylor, Al Hamadi, Townsend, Broadhead, Jack Clarke.
Referee: Darren England (South Yorkshire).
VAR: Alex Chilowicz
Preamble
There’s no need to be overly dramatic. Title-chasing Arsenal may be nine points behind current leaders Liverpool, but both teams still have 21 matches to play, so nobody is in must-win territory yet. Having said that, Mikel Arteta’s side won’t feel too chipper about themselves if they don’t claim all three points this evening, coming off the back of a 5-1 win at Crystal Palace, and playing a team who have just been thumped 4-0 at home by Newcastle. Arsenal – who are unbeaten at home this season – are 7-1 on tonight, while you can get Ipswich – who haven’t won this fixture since 1979, the days of Arnold Muhren, Mick Mills and Bobby Robson – at 20s. So this looks a shoo-in. Then again, you never know in the Premier League, and Ipswich may be in fast-and-loose mode, viewing this game as a free hit in their quest to extricate themselves from relegation danger. We’ll find out soon enough. Kick-off is at 8.15pm GMT. It’s on!
