Chelsea 2 Ipswich Town 2 – Noni Madueke shines but Enzo Maresca's side drop vital points

New York Times

13-04-2025

Chelsea's hopes of qualifying for next season's Champions League suffered a blow on Sunday following a 2-2 draw against strugglers Ipswich Town at Stamford Bridge.
Two goals from the relegation-bound visitors had Enzo Maresca's side on the back foot at half-time, but Chelsea improved significantly after the break — pulling one back in the 46th minute via an Axel Tuanzebe own goal after some fine work by Noni Madueke and then equalising through second-half substitute Jadon Sancho on 79 minutes.
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While Chelsea will be pleased that they fought back from 2-0 down to take a point, the result will still be a disappointment given the gap between the two sides in the table.
Here, our Chelsea correspondent Simon Johnson analyses the key talking points from the match.
It could have been worse, but this was still a very costly two points dropped on home soil. Chelsea salvaged some pride by coming back from 2-0 down at half-time to draw, but this was a game they really had to win.
To not beat Ipswich, a team heading straight back to the Championship following last year's promotion, home or away this season (Chelsea lost 2-0 in December's reverse fixture), could be the difference between qualifying for the 2025-26 Champions League or not.
With the race for a top-five finish, which this season will be enough for Champions League qualification, as tight as it is (there are four points separating Nottingham Forest in third place from Newcastle in seventh before the latter's home game against Manchester United later on Sunday), Chelsea have to win matches such as this to hang onto, or improve on, their current fifth position over the run-in.
A lot of the reasons for Chelsea not being in a better position in the table than that were on show at Stamford Bridge today. They were not clinical enough in attack and were worryingly porous at the back. The fans made their feelings clear at both half-time and the final whistle.
With just six league matches remaining, Chelsea can ill afford to make many more mistakes if they are to reclaim a seat at Europe's top table.
Wind the clock back to when Chelsea were looking for Mauricio Pochettino's replacement as head coach last spring and Kieran McKenna's name was firmly in the mix.
Chelsea gave serious thought to McKenna's credentials after he led Ipswich to back-to-back promotions from third-tier League One and then the Championship. In the end, he dropped out of the running as Chelsea narrowed the shortlist to Thomas Frank of west London neighbours Brentford and Maresca, with the latter obviously winning out following his own Championship promotion success with Leicester City.
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McKenna has inevitably found his debut season in the Premier League tough going and they are heading straight back to the Championship, as most pre-season predictions expected them to.
However, he has continued to show what he has to offer in testing circumstances and Chelsea, in particular, have found that out to their cost.
Ipswich inflicted Chelsea's first away defeat of the season in December, but with in-demand striker Liam Delap only named on the bench for this match because of a rib injury, few would have expected the visitors to provide much resistance.
Yet McKenna set his team up to punish Chelsea ruthlessly on the counter, with on-loan Brighton forward Julio Enciso particularly difficult for the home side to handle.
Ipswich were deservedly 2-0 up at half-time, much to the travelling support's delight. Chelsea came on strong, as you would expect, after the break. But impressively, McKenna didn't tell his players to just sit back and try to hang on to their advantage. Instead, they continued to be a threat and could have added to their two goals.
Getting a home win and away draw against Chelsea is good work for a side assembled on a fraction of the budget that Maresca's was last summer.
The result means that Maresca is yet to beat McKenna in his managerial career, with the Italian's Leicester City team drawing twice against Ipswich in the Championship last season.
Going back to the Championship is never a great thing, but if Ipswich can hang onto McKenna, they have a great chance for an instant return to the domestic elite next season.
On a trying afternoon for everyone connected to Chelsea, Noni Madueke showed why he is perhaps the club's most important winger currently.
Even with Mykhailo Mudryk's ongoing suspension for failing a doping test (we're still waiting on the results of his B sample to see what happens next), Maresca has plenty of options to choose from in the wide positions. But in a team that has become too measured in the passing game as the season has gone on, Madueke injects some much-needed dribbling prowess — an intent to take on his man.
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Now, not everything the 23-year-old England international does comes off. There were a few moments in Sunday's first half where he should have done much better with his end-product, particularly when he took too long to shoot and got tackled. But it was his fine run and cross at the start of the second half that got Chelsea back into the game and injected some much-needed belief.
It took his number of goal involvements to 15 from 32 appearances this season (10 goals, five assists), which is a very respectable number in itself and comfortably the best among the other Chelsea wide men (Pedro Neto has 12 goal involvements in his 37 games, Jadon Sancho 12 in 32 and academy graduate Tyrique George five in 18).
With over 20 minutes remaining here, Maresca surprisingly replaced him with Sancho — and Madueke did not look too pleased about it. However, the Manchester United loanee's subsequent equaliser more than justified the decision.
Still, on this evidence, Madueke has to start the majority of the matches on Chelsea's right-hand side.
Speaking to the BBC after the match, the Chelsea coach said: 'Today was tough. Their first goal changed the dynamic of the game. First 20 (minutes), we were in control but we missed our chances. After that, we were not good enough (in the) first half. Second half, we came back into the game. Sometimes one small thing changes the dynamic — we conceded and we lost a bit of confidence, (but in the) second half we got back in the game.
'We changed something tactically. The message was quite clear in terms of starting the right way and to create chances. When you concede, it's the moment to be more strong and to continue. We played with one more midfielder.'
Thursday, April 17: Legia Warsaw (Home), Conference League quarter-final second leg, 8pm UK, 3pm ET