Still harbouring hopes of securing European football for the first time in their history, Brentford travel to Portman Road to face already-relegated Ipswich Town in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
The Bees are looking to complete their first league double over the Tractor Boys after coming out on top in a seven-goal thriller in the reverse fixture over six months ago, winning 4-3 at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Match preview
A week after having their relegation from the Premier League confirmed, Ipswich Town battled from two goals down to pick up a point against Everton in a 2-2 draw at Goodison Park last weekend – their 10th league draw of the season.
Kieran McKenna‘s men looked on course to suffer a 22nd top-flight loss when strikes from Beto and Dwight McNeil put the Toffees in control inside 35 minutes, but Julio Enciso gave the travelling Tractor Boys something to cheer on Merseyside when he netted a trademark long-range wordie, before George Hirst headed home a second-half equaliser at the back post.
Ipswich have collected more than twice as many PL points on the road this season (15 away, seven at home), but two of their remaining three fixtures will take place at Portman Road where they have suffered defeat in 10 of their last 11 home games, losing each of their seven by an aggregate score of 24-5.
The Suffolk-based outfit have lost a total of 12 Premier League home games this season – only basement club Southampton (14) have lost more – and their solitary home triumph came against Chelsea (2-0) in December; only once have the Tractor Boys ever lost more home matches in a single league campaign (13 in 1994-95).
Ipswich are determined to end their longest home losing run in their league history, and they can take some optimism from the fact that they have only suffered defeat in one of their seven home league encounters with Brentford (W2 D4), losing 3-1 in the Championship in April 2016.
Brentford are making a late push for European qualification as they have won each of their last three Premier League games, accumulating as many points as they did in their previous seven fixtures combined; they last won more consecutive top-flight games in February/March 1939 (five).
After claiming impressive victories over Brighton & Hove Albion (4-2 at home) and Nottingham Forest (2-0 away), the Bees prevailed by a 4-3 scoreline in an action-packed thriller against Manchester United last weekend, with Kevin Schade (2) and Yoane Wissa among the scorers at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Thomas Frank‘s side have now scored four or more goals in eight different Premier League matches this season, which is the most of any team. On just three occasions have the Bees score four or more goals in nine games across a league campaign, doing so in 1930-31, 1962-63 and 1982-83 (nine each time).
Sitting ninth in the table and just one point behind Bournemouth in eighth place, Brentford will face Ipswich, Wolves and Fulham in their remaining three fixtures and they require just one more victory to record their highest-ever win tally in a Premier League season (currently 15 and level with 2022-23 season).
Brentford, who are making their first trip to Portman Road since September 2018, will fancy their chances of success this weekend, as they have only lost one of their last 10 league meetings with Ipswich (W4 D5), winning three of their last four in the process.
Team News
While Ipswich left-back Leif Davis will serve the third and final game of his three-man ban, Nathan Broadhead, Conor Townsend (both hamstring), Jaden Philogene, Wes Burns (both knee), Arijanet Muric (shoulder), Sammie Szmodics (ankle) and Chiedozie Ogbene (calf) all remain sidelined with injuries.
Ben Johnson is available for selection after missing the draw with Everton through suspension and he is set to battle with Axel Tuanzebe – who recently recovered from a thigh problem – to start at right-back where Dara O’Shea has filled in for the last two games.
Jacob Greaves is set to continue as a makeshift left-back in the absence of Davis and Townsend, while Jens Cajuste may replace Jack Taylor in centre-midfield. George Hirst will be pushing for a start after scoring last time out, but he is unlikely to displace top scorer Liam Delap up front.
As for Brentford, Vitaly Janelt (ankle), Josh Dasilva (knee), Fabio Carvalho (shoulder) and Aaron Hickey (hamstring) all remain sidelined with injuries, but Igor Thiago is available for selection after several months out with a knee problem.
However, Thiago is not expected to force himself into the first XI as in-form trio Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and Kevin Schade, who have all scored 10+ PL goals this season, should retain their starting spots, as playmaker Mikkel Damsgaard operates just behind in an advanced midfield role.
Rico Henry has featured as a substitute in Brentford’s last three league games and Frank will weigh up whether to hand the left-back his first start of the season at the expense of Keane Lewis-Potter, while Mathias Jensen could replace Yehor Yarmolyuk in centre-midfield.
Ipswich Town possible starting lineup:
Palmer; Tuanzebe, O’Shea, Burgess, Greaves; Morsy, Cajuste; Hutchinson, Chaplin, Enciso; Delap
Brentford possible starting lineup:
Flekken; Kayode, Collins, Van den Berg, Lewis-Potter; Jensen, Norgaard, Damsgaard; Mbeumo, Wissa, Schade
We say: Ipswich Town 1-4 Brentford
Each of Ipswich’s last seven games have seen at least three goals scored, while Brentford have found the net 10 times in their last three matches and also netted four in the reverse fixture with the Tractor Boys, so there could be plenty of goalmouth action at Portman Road this weekend.
The in-form Bees are buzzing right now, though, and we expect Frank’s side to outscore their opponents, who are merely playing for pride, en route to claiming three valuable points in the race for a top-eight finish.
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