West Ham are preparing to face Ipswich Town in the fourth home fixture in the Premier League before the upcoming international break. While West Ham’s overall start to the season has been largely inconsistent, their home results haven’t been convincing with three consecutive defeats at the London Stadium in the new season. While those defeats came against top Premier League teams such as Aston Villa, Manchester City and Chelsea, the Hammers were expected to take some points from these matches given the highly talented squad they have assembled after the transfer window.
Hence, Julen Lopetegui's side are fourteenth in the league table with five points from six matches, and will face newly promoted side Ipswich Town, who are one point behind them at fifteenth place. While Kieran McKenna's Ipswich Town are yet to take their first win in the Premier League, they have been playing some brilliant football in the recent weeks. After starting the new season with massive defeats against defending Champions Manchester City and Liverpool, Ipswich Town have played four consecutive draws against Fulham, Brighton, Southampton and Aston Villa.
Can West Ham take their first home win this season against Ipswich Town
Against Fulham they took the early lead before Fulham winger Adama Traore levelled the score to take a point for Marco Silva's side. In the Brighton fixture, they displayed their defensive solidity and managed a 0-0 draw with one of the most improved Premier League teams in recent seasons. Although Southampton took a 1-0 lead in the fifth matchday, Sam Morsy scored a last-minute equaliser to give Ipswich Town an important point from the match.
Recently, they took another step forward in the Premier League as they held Unai Emery’s Aston Villa to a thrilling 2-2 draw that included a brace from Liam Delap. Therefore, West Ham need to give their best performance to take a win against Ipswich Town. The two sides have had their similar goalscoring struggles, but the Hammers have been conceding a lot of goals in the recent matches while Ipswich Town are continuing their upward trajectory in the league.
The Brentford match highlighted West Ham's defensive issues as they went behind 1-0 despite the fact that Brentford played without several of their first team players. Moreover, there are recent rumours of a managerial change doing the rounds at West Ham and the Hammers board may consider other alternatives to Julen Lopetegui, if West Ham can't take a convincing win in this fixture as well as the upcoming matches.