Delap Shines with Brace as Villa Miss Chance to Close in on Leaders
After holding Aston Villa 2-2 at Portman Road on Sunday, Ipswich Town played out their fourth consecutive English Premier League draw. Liam Delap gave the home team the early lead before snatching the equalizer in the second half.
Ipswich, who were promoted, are still without a Premier League victory as they were defeated by Villa in the first half despite goals from Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins, and Delap in the second half.
Unai Emery’s team is in fifth place with 13 points, behind Chelsea on goal differential, while Ipswich are in 15th place with four points. Villa lost the opportunity to draw even with leaders Liverpool.
“It was excellent, and we gave a lot of opportunities and demonstrated our values right away. We had a great outcome, and given our effort in the second half, we most likely deserved to win,” Delap said to Sky Sports.
“I think it’s the fourth time we’ve got something from a game so we are happy.”
Ipswich took the lead early in the end-to-end first half after Villa failed to clear the ball. Jack Clarke then cut the ball back for Delap, whose first-time effort went through goalkeeper Emi Martinez’s glove despite Martinez covering the near post.
However, Villa hit back after only seven minutes when Rogers picked up the ball in the box and played a one-two with Watkins to score the equalizer after Jacob Greaves mishandled the clearance.
Leon Bailey’s cross soon hushed Portman Road, taking out the two Ipswich centre backs. Watkins then made it 2-1 with a header, his fourth goal of the year.
Ipswich had two fantastic chances to draw even, but Martinez saved Villa’s bacon by blocking Kalvin Phillips’ rocket of a shot and extending his leg to stop Delap when he was clear on goal.
The second half saw a slowdown in play, but Ipswich was still in control. After 72 minutes, they equalized on a counterattack, with Delap beating Martinez and overcoming the offside trap before teasing Diego Carlos with a beautiful shimmy.
“They always put a lot of pressure on us and we couldn’t really implement our game plan,” Watkins stated.
They wanted it to be more of a basketball game, which is what Ipswich wanted, but we weren’t into that. They were always on us. It was a challenging game, and I believe a point is a just outcome.”
Pep on Rodri
It took Pep Guardiola roughly twenty seconds to express his dissatisfaction with discussing Rodri, Man City’s absentee midfielder.
Less than thirty minutes had passed since his team’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle when he took his seat in the St. James’ Park media conference room.
the initial query? Does the game demonstrate Rodri’s importance to your team?
“We played well with Kova (Mateo Kovacic), Bernardo (Silva), and Rico (Lewis),” Guardiola retorted after taking a breath.
Four out of the seven queries directed at Guardiola had something to do with Rodri. Guardiola said his midfield was “magnificent” to BBC Match of the Day following a similar line of questions.
Guardiola eventually addressed the matter head-on.
“I know you are going to ask me all the time,” he said.
