Dias starts at Ipswich as City make four changes

Men's Team

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The Portuguese defender last played on 15 December and has been unavailable through injury for our last seven matches.

He is joined in the XI by Ederson, Ilkay Gundogan and Jeremy Doku, who all began Tuesday’s draw at Brentford on the bench.

Stefan Ortega Moreno, Bernardo Silva and Savinho are amongst the substitutes while Nathan Ake is injured for this one.

Erling Haaland’s hat-trick in the reverse fixture back in August helped us to a 4-1 win over the newly promoted side.

This is our first league trip to Portman Road since a 2-1 defeat in the penultimate fixture of the 2000/01 season - sealing our last relegation from the Premier League.

In remembrance of Manchester football legends Tony Book and Denis Law, City will wear black armbands and a minute’s silence will be held prior to kick-off.

Teams

CITY XI: Ederson, Nunes, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol, Kovacic, Gundogan, De Bruyne (C), Foden, Doku, Haaland

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Grealish, Bernardo, Savinho, Mubama, Alleyne, O’Reilly, Lewis, McAtee

IPSWICH TOWN XI: Walton, Johnson, Godfrey, O’Shea, Burgess, Davis, Morsy (C), Cajuste, Hutchinson, J. Clarke, Delap

Subs: Muric, Tuanzebe, Townsend, Luongo, Taylor, Burns, Jaden, Broadhead, Hirst

Men's Team

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Tactics

Ederson, in his first Premier League game since our derby defeat to Manchester United, will be protected by a defence of Matheus Nunes, Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol. Nunes and Gvardiol will, of course, progress up the pitch when we have the ball.

Mateo Kovacic and Ilkay Gundogan will hold fort in central midfield, allowing Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Jeremy Doku to interchange behind striker Erling Haaland.

Familiar foe

Former City Academy star Liam Delap starts up front for our hosts.

The England youth international has been Ipswich’s brightest spark for much of the campaign to date, netting eight of their 20 league goals.

He signed for Ipswich from City in the summer after impressing for our Elite Development Squad and then out on loan.

With Erling Haaland set to lead the line at the Etihad for years to come, Delap chose to leave to be the main man at Ipswich and our defenders will have to be on their game to keep him quiet.

Men's Team

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Match stats

Ipswich have lost just one of their last 28 home league games against City (W20 D7), winning the last four in a row. This is the first such meeting however since May 2001.

In what is the 30th different league campaign in which we’ve met, we are looking to complete the double over Ipswich for just the third time, previously doing so in 1961-62 and 1994-95.

We have won 20 of their last 21 Premier League games against promoted sides since losing 2-1 to Leeds United in April 2021, with the only exception in this run being a 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest in February 2023.

Over their last two Premier League campaigns (2001-02 and this one), Ipswich have won just one of their 14 games played on a Sunday (D6 L7), winning 2-1 at Spurs earlier this season.

We have dropped 14 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, letting a 2-0 lead slip to draw 2-2 with Brentford last time out. It’s the most points we have dropped from ahead in a single campaign since 2008-09 (20). 

Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick in City’s 4-1 win against Ipswich earlier this season – the only player to score home and away hat-tricks against an opponent in the same campaign is Emmanuel Adebayor (for Arsenal vs Derby County in 2007-08).

Having failed to score in his first 11 Premier League games this season, Phil Foden has netted four goals in his last five. He’s looking to score in three consecutive league games for the first time since October 2022.