Manchester City vs Ipswich Town (Premier League): Match Preview, Team News, Head to Head, How To Watch

Manchester City host Ipswich Town at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon in the Blues’ first home match of the 2024/25 campaign.

Pep Guardiola’s side bid to maintain their winning start to the new Premier League campaign against newly-promoted Ipswich this weekend, after beating Chelsea 0-2 at Stamford Bridge last Sunday courtesy of goals from Erling Haaland and Mateo Kovacic.

The clash at the Etihad Stadium could also provide a home debut to summer signing Savinho, as well as minutes for the Blues’ second addition of the window Ilkay Gundogan, who Manchester City have re-signed on a free transfer in a sensational midfield move.

Gundogan will return to Manchester City for a second spell, having captained the Sky Blues to a historic treble success during the final weeks of the 2022/23 campaign, prior to ending a seven-year stay in the north-west to sign for FC Barcelona.

The midfielder has made 304 previous appearances for the Blues, and could make his 305th against Ipswich on Saturday afternoon, with the Tractor Boys having made two additions from the Etihad Stadium themselves this summer.

Liam Delap and Kalvin Phillips have both moved to Portman Road, with the latter signing on a season-long loan, and the young forward completing a blockbuster £20 million transfer to the Suffolk-based club.

Delap could feature against Manchester City this weekend, meanwhile Kalvin Phillips is ineligible due to Premier League rules on loan players facing their parent clubs in competitive action.

Ipswich suffered a 0-2 loss to Liverpool at Portman Road last Saturday in their opening match of a brand new top-flight adventure, and will face Manchester City for the first time since 2002 this weekend.

Match Details

Manchester City host Ipswich Town in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon at the Etihad Stadium, with kick-off scheduled for 15:00 BST.

Team News

Rodri is ruled out for Manchester City’s opening home game of the new Premier League season, having not restarted training with the rest of Pep Guardiola’s first-team squad following the summer break.

Savinho is expected to be in contention after an injury scare last weekend, when a ‘disturbance’ in his knee forced a withdrawal from action at the half-time interval of the 0-2 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Head To Head

Saturday afternoon’s clash between Manchester City and Ipswich Town will be the first between the two teams since January 2002, when the Blues won 1-4 in an FA Cup tie at Portman Road.

There have been 66 previous meetings between the two clubs in their respective histories, with Manchester City having won 23, drawn 15 and lost 28 of the past fixtures.

Statistics

• Kieran McKenna will become the 14th different manager whose first ever Premier League away game has come against the reigning champions, with none of the previous 13 having won.
• Saturday afternoon’s match will be the first Premier League meeting between Manchester City and Ipswich Town since the 2000/01 campaign, when they were both newly-promoted sides.
• Saturday will be Ipswich’s first-ever meeting with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
• Bernardo Silva’s assist for Erling Haaland against Chelsea was his 43rd in the Premier League, the joint-most of any Portuguese player in the competition’s history.
• Manchester City have won 17 of their last 18 Premier League games against promoted sides (D1) since a 2-1 home loss to Leeds United in April 2021.
• Ipswich haven’t scored in any of their last seven away league games against the reigning top-flight champions (D1, L6), losing the last three by an aggregate score of 15-0. They last scored in such a game in April 1984 (2-2 vs Liverpool), while their last such victory was in October 1981 (1-0 vs Aston Villa)

How To Watch

Viewers in the United Kingdom will be unable to watch Saturday’s clash on television, however full match commentary will be available on BBC Radio Manchester.

You can find the full list of global TV listing for Manchester against Ipswich Town here!

City Xtra will also be providing live coverage of the match on all of our social media channels, with a live watchalong show available on YouTube.