- 1 Manchester City vs Ipswich Town: a perfect start meets a defence without a clean sheet in 25 games
- 2 Manchester City: two defeats in 32 league games and Haaland already in double figures
- 3 Ipswich Town: three wins in six, but 62 goals conceded across their last 25 league games
- 4 Free Premier League Prediction: Manchester City vs Ipswich Town
- 5 About our free predictions
- 6 No commitment from us
- 7 Information changes
- 8 Your responsibility
- 9 Responsible gambling
- 10 Legal age
- 11 About visuals
Manchester City vs Ipswich Town: a perfect start meets a defence without a clean sheet in 25 games 
Six league games, six wins, 18 points. Manchester City are the only side in the Premier League with a perfect record, and on Saturday they host Ipswich Town at the Etihad, kick-off 16:00 Paris time.
The context isn’t quite as tidy as the table suggests. City lost 4-2 at home to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night, a result that ended Enzo Maresca’s eight-game winning run across all competitions. PSG were 3-0 up inside half an hour. City then dominated the second half, finishing with 27 shots and 52 touches in the opposition box.
That second half is the part worth holding onto. It was the real City, and it came three days after a 3-0 win at Anfield.
There’s history on the line too. Win this, and Maresca becomes the first manager in Premier League history to open a campaign with seven straight wins. Only Chelsea in 2005-06 and Liverpool in 2019-20 have done it as a club. Both went on to lift the title.
Ipswich arrive tenth, on nine points, with three wins already banked. Good numbers for a promoted side. But the defensive record tells a different story, and it’s the story that matters at the Etihad. Can a side that hasn’t kept a clean sheet in 25 Premier League matches really keep this attack quiet for 90 minutes?
Manchester City: two defeats in 32 league games and Haaland already in double figures 
City have been beaten in only two of their last 32 top-flight matches, winning 22 and drawing eight. At home it’s just as stingy: two defeats in 22 league fixtures at the Etihad since the start of last season, with 17 wins. Points simply don’t leave this ground.
Erling Haaland has ten goals in nine appearances this season, two of them against PSG on Wednesday. He’s got previous with Ipswich as well: four goals in two meetings during the 2024-25 campaign, including the 6-0 rout at Portman Road in January 2025.
Bad news for Ipswich.
Maresca has no injury problems to manage, and Phil Foden is available again after serving a three-match league ban for his red card against Manchester United on September 13. Matheus Nunes looks set to return at right-back in place of Abdukodir Khusanov, while Ayyoub Bouaddi and Iliman Ndiaye both pushed their case off the bench in midweek.
The mood could be charged. This is City’s first Premier League home game since the verdict on the financial charges, and the crowd’s likely to make itself heard. A wounded side, a full squad and a stadium in a defiant mood. That combination tends to produce a reaction, not a hangover.
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Ipswich Town: three wins in six, but 62 goals conceded across their last 25 league games 
Credit where it’s due. Ipswich needed 19 games to collect three wins in 2024-25. This time they’ve done it in six, beating Sunderland, Crystal Palace and, last weekend, Fulham. It’s only the second time they’ve opened a Premier League season with three wins from six, after 1993-94.
The Fulham win was pure character. Ipswich trailed with two minutes of normal time left, Abdoul Ouattara equalised, and captain Dara O’Shea headed in the winner in the 92nd minute. Gary O’Neil’s side already sit six points clear of the bottom three.
Then there’s the other column. Twelve goals conceded in six games, the joint second-worst record in the division. No clean sheet in their last 25 Premier League matches, and 62 goals shipped in that run, at 2.48 per game. That doesn’t bear close inspection.
O’Neil has a full squad, and Abdul Fatawu is pushing for a recall after a one-match suspension. Exequiel Palacios could come into midfield alongside Sasa Lukic, and there’s been talk of a five-man defence for the first time this season. Even so, a back four of Ouattara, O’Shea, Issa Diop and Leif Davis looks the likelier shape.
History won’t help either. Ipswich’s last top-flight win away at City came in November 2000, a 3-2. A quarter of a century ago.
Probable lineup Manchester City: Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Guehi, O’Reilly; Anderson, Fernandez; Semenyo, Cherki, Doku; Haaland
Probable lineup Ipswich Town: Walton; Ouattara, O’Shea, Diop, Davis; Palacios, Lukic; Fatawu, Enciso, Clarke; Emersonn
Free Premier League Prediction: Manchester City vs Ipswich Town
Our prediction: Manchester City to win by two or more goals (-1.5 handicap)
The straight home win is priced at 1.22, which isn’t worth touching on its own. The handicap is where the value sits. City’s second half against PSG showed an attack creating chances at an extraordinary rate, and Ipswich have conceded 2.48 goals per game across their last 25 league matches.
Put those two numbers side by side and the margin question answers itself. City have lost two of 22 home league games since the start of last season, and Haaland has four goals in two meetings with this opponent. Ipswich’s spirit is real, but spirit doesn’t plug a defence that hasn’t kept a clean sheet in 25 attempts.
One Ipswich goal wouldn’t kill this pick. Three for City would almost certainly cover it. The numbers point one way.
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