Kieran McKenna described Friday’s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal as a “step in the proper path” for Ipswich City, saying they might want to keep their defensive requirements in upcoming video games.
Kai Havertz’s first-half strike condemned Ipswich to a fifth defeat within the area of six Premier League matches, leaving them nineteenth within the desk and three factors adrift of security.
The Tractor Boys had been unable to supply a risk in assault after Liam Delap spurned one early probability, failing to file a single contact within the Arsenal field within the opening 45 minutes.
That made them simply the second staff to take action within the Premier League this season, after Nottingham Forest versus Liverpool in September.
Nonetheless, they managed to frustrate Arsenal for lengthy intervals, with the primary half containing a complete of 4 photographs – the fewest within the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League sport since West Ham towards Newcastle United in October 2023 (additionally 4).
With video games towards Chelsea, Fulham, Brighton and Hove Albion, Manchester Metropolis and Liverpool to return earlier than the tip of January, McKenna feels Ipswich can take confidence from their defensive efforts in north London.
“It was a superb step again in the proper path for us,” he instructed Amazon Prime Video. “We didn’t hit our ranges towards Newcastle.
“We knew at the moment we needed to be resilient and we did that. It was necessary that we ended the sport solidly and we really feel we might be compact.
“We’ll take confidence from that. The best way we turned the momentum to place the sport in a superb place for us, I feel is one thing to take confidence from.
“I feel we are able to. A few of our defending was good and we’ll want that on Monday towards Chelsea.”
Ipswich tried simply three photographs within the match, the seventh time a staff has managed three or fewer efforts within the Premier League this season.
Three of these situations have been towards Arsenal, all of them coming in December, with Fulham and Everton restricted to 2 photographs apiece.
Chatting with BBC Match of the Day, McKenna added: “The gamers labored actually exhausting and we acquired the sport to a superb place within the second half after a superb 20 minutes.
“Early on we had been pinned in and couldn’t get out, however to the place we had been after 89 minutes, I used to be actually happy.
“Within the first half it was solely the aim the place I believed we would have liked to defend higher.
“We had been resilient and compact after we wanted to be. Arsenal spent numerous the primary half in our defensive third however had been unable to penetrate.”
