Town crash to heaviest defeat of the season at the hands of a dominant Manchester City

Ipswich crashed to their heaviest defeat of the season after Premier League champions Manchester City crushed the Tractor Boys 6-0 at Portman Road.

The goals conceded made a huge dent to the Town’s goal difference which could be crucial towards the end of the season as they battle to stay in the division.

They remained in 18th spot on the same number of points as Wolverhampton Wanderers, a place ahead above the drop zone, and who play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge tomorrow.

City were totally convincing and attacked at will throughout both halves as the game developed into a men against boys scenario.

Phill Foden scored twice in the first half along with Mateo Kovacic to give the visitors a commanding 3-0 lead and Jeremy Doku,  Erling Haarland and substitute James McAttee added a further three in the second period.

The result moved City up to fourth spot behind Nottingham Forest, Arsenal and leaders Liverpool who the Town face at Anfield next week.

Ipswich made five changes to the team that started Thursday night’s 2-0 home loss to Brighton.

In came new signing Ben Godfrey for his league debut, along with Cameron Burgess, Ben Johnson, Sam Morsy and Jack Clarke. They replaced Luke Woolfenden, Jacob Greaves, Wes Burns, Kalvin Phillips and Nathan Broadhead.

Jaden Philogène, who signed last week from Aston Villa, was included on the substitutes bench along with defender Axel Tuanzebe who was back in the squad for first time since his hamstring injury at Nottingham Forest on November 30.

The visitors, meanwhile, made four changes to the team that started Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw at Brentford.

In came goalkeeper Edersen, Ruben Dias, who both made their first league starts since December 1, Ilkay Gundogan and Jeremy Doku in place of Stefan Ortega, Nathan Ake, Bernardo Silva and Savinho.

The game was only three minutes old when Ipswich had the first corner of the game following a driving run up the right by Godfrey.

Sam Morsy clipped the ball to the back post which was headed behind by Matheus Nunes.

It was a bright start to the game by Ipswich who threatened to have the opening goal of the game with forward attacking moves by Godfrey and Clarke with the visitor’s goalkeeper Ederson in the thick of the action.

But the Premier League champions slowly came into the game and had the first real chance of the match in the 15th minute.

Kovacic put Haarland through on goal but Ipswich goalkeeper Christian Walton made a superb deflection as the Norwegian international striker surged forward.

Midway through the opening period Liam Delap made a great forward run only to be felled on the edge of the penalty area by Nunes.

From the resulted free kick a training ground routine saw Leif Davis square the ball to Omari Hutchinson whose shot was deflected over the bar and from the resultant corner Dara O’Shea headed the ball straight at Ederson.

But Manchester struck two goals within three minutes through Foden and Kovacic.

The first came in the 27th minute when Jeremy Doku found Kevin De Bruyne who squared the ball to Foden who turned and fired past Walton.

And Kovacic made it 2-0 when Doku and Foden combined with the latter laying the ball off for City’s Croatian international midfielder to fire an unstoppable shot into the Town net.

City were in control as the half drew to a close and added a third through Foden in the 42nd minute.

It was Doku again with De Bruyne who combined down the left with the Manchester City captain finding space near the by line to cross for Foden to neatly tuck the ball into the Ipswich goal from within the six yard area.

Delap and Hutchinson combined just after the start of the second period with Johnson following up down the right and his low angled shot was saved at the second attempt by Ederson.

But City came straight back up the other end to make it 4-0 through Doku in the 50th minute.

He darted in between Godfrey and Morsy and let off a low angled shot. The ball took a slight nick off O’Shea on the way to finding the net.

It was five in the 57th minute following a dreadful mistake by Clarke, who was making his first league start since the 1-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace.

His pass fell to Doku who teed up Haarland for a simple finish past the exposed Walton.

The Town defence was at sixes and sevens as City attacked at will. Morsy was dispossessed in midfield and City attacked at speed.

Doku cut the ball back for Haaland and Walton kept the ball out of the net with his trailing leg.

There was a flurry of substitutions from both sides on 63 minutes.

Jack Grealish, Divin Mubama and James McAtee came on in place of Foden, Harland and De Bruyne, while Ipswich introduced Philogene, Massimo Luongo and Tuanzebe for Clarke, Jens Cajuste and Godfrey.

But it made little difference to City’s attacking potential as McAtee made it 6-0 in the 69th minute.

Kovacic lifted a superb pass over the top from deep and McAtee looped a header over Walton inside the area. 

There were further changes three minutes later when City brought on Rico Lewis and Nico O’Reilly for Kovacic and Manuel Akanji with Ipswich changing Hutchinson and Delap for Jack Taylor and George Hirst.

In spite of the result the majority of the Town fans among the 29,841 inside the stadium kept chanting for their team right up to the final whistle and as they left the field.