2024-25 Premier League: Week 18 – Arsenal vs Ipswich

Title-chasing Arsenal host relegation-battling Ipswich at Emirates Stadium.

Victory will lift Arsenal up to second in the table, whilst Ipswich can climb to 18th with  a win but can move out of the relegation zone only if they beat the Gunners by six goals or more.

 

Team News

Arsenal will be without Bukayo Saka after he suffered a hamstring injury in their 5-1 win at Crystal Palace.

Raheem Sterling missed the short trip with a knee injury but remains ruled out indefinitely.

Oleksandr Zinchenko (muscle) could return, but Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben White (both knee) remain absent.

Ipswich will welcome forward, Liam Delap back after he was suspended for their 4-0 home loss to Newcastle.

Massimo Luongo (illness) could too return but Sam Morsy is suspended.

Axel Tuanzebe (hamstring), George Hirst (knee) and Chiedozie Ogbene (Achilles) remain ruled out.

 

When is Kick-Off?

Arsenal host Ipswich at Emirates Stadium on Friday 27 December at 8:15pm GMT, live on Amazon in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• Arsenal are unbeaten in 10 previous Premier League meetings against Ipswich (W8, D2).
• Ipswich are playing away to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium for the first time in the league, but are winless in five Premier League visits to the Gunners albeit at Highbury (D1, L4).
• Arsenal have kept clean sheets in four of their five Premier League home games against Ipswich, except for a 4-1 win in April 1995.
• Mikel Arteta’s Gunners have scored five goals in their last three league games at home without conceding (W2, D1).
• Delap has scored in each of Ipswich’s three league trips to London-based opposition this season (W1, L2).

 

Prediction

Unbeaten in seven league games, Arsenal are certainly back in their groove and have a great chance to become Liverpool’s closest rivals if play with the same intensity as they did at Palace.

Ipswich have very little chance of a win here unless they are clinical and score first then dig in defensively, but they need to just go for it as underdogs and show more grit than they did against Newcastle.

I however just can’t see Arsenal losing this if they turn up with the right attitude and should be an one-sided game.

Prediction: Arsenal 3-0 Ipswich

Result: Arsenal 1-0 Ipswich