If Chelsea fall short in their push for Champions League qualification it will be difficult to look past their curious inability to deal with Ipswich. They remain the only side to have lost at Portman Road in the league this season and their fallibility under pressure was again the theme when they failed to find a way past Kieran McKenna’s defiant but doomed team in the return fixture.
Enzo Maresca later talked ruefully of Chelsea’s struggle to cope with “the environment” at Stamford Bridge being a key factor in this pulsating 2-2 draw. The disconnect with the crowd lingers. Supporters who question Maresca’s patient style of play are quick to turn in trying times. “You’re boring, Enzo,” came the cry from one dissenting voice at the back of the East Stand’s lower tier when Ipswich, surgical in the way they punished Chelsea’s early disarray, swept into a 2-0 lead after 31 minutes.
