🏏 Sat, 22 Aug 2026 15:00 BST
Ipswich
vs
Sunderland AFC
4-2-3-1 vs 4-2-3-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- This is a mirror match on paper, with both sides lining up in a 4-2-3-1 on the opening weekend. Ipswich pair Serbia international Sasa Lukic, 30, a box-to-box midfielder schooled at Partizan and Torino, with left-footed Chile international Marcelino Nunez, 26, who arrived via Norwich and brings a fierce long-range shot and set-piece delivery. How that double pivot copes with Sunderland's engine room will set the tone.
- Japan forward Daizen Maeda starts in the second line for Ipswich. The 28-year-old came up through Matsumoto Yamaga and Mito before winning the J1 golden boot with Yokohama F. Marinos, then spent close to five years at Celtic collecting Scottish silverware. At 173cm he relies on extraordinary acceleration and relentless pressing, and he is the trigger for Ipswich's pressing from the front.
- Sunderland's midfield is anchored by Switzerland captain Granit Xhaka. The 33-year-old won the Premier League with Arsenal and the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen, and he organises the side with a powerful left foot and long-range switches of play. His partner is 21-year-old DR Congo international Noah Sadiki, an Anderlecht academy product from the age of six who developed further at Union Saint-Gilloise.
- Ipswich have a reunion on the bench in Jack Clarke. The 25-year-old left winger came through at Leeds, moved to Tottenham and then made his name at Sunderland, hitting double figures in the Championship. He likes to cut inside and shoot with his right foot, so his introduction would pit him against a defence that knows his habits inside out.
- It is also a duel between two Dutch goalkeepers. Ipswich's Kjell Scherpen is 206cm tall, one of the biggest keepers in Europe, developed at Emmen and Ajax before spells with Vitesse, Oostende, Sturm Graz and Union SG. Sunderland's Robin Roefs, 23 and 193cm, is left-footed, a rarity that gives him unusual angles in build-up after breaking through at NEC Nijmegen.
- Ipswich meet Sunderland's centre-forward with height of their own. Issa Diop, 29 and 194cm, played Ligue 1 for Toulouse as a teenager before West Ham and Fulham, and partners Hull City academy graduate Jacob Greaves, 25, whose left foot starts play from the back. Their assignment is Brian Brobbey, the 24-year-old who scored 56 goals in 163 games for Ajax and joined for 20 million euros.
- Sunderland's right side has an unusual look. Thomas Meunier, 34, a 190cm defender with 76 Belgium caps who starred for Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund and scored in the 2018 World Cup third-place play-off, takes the full-back slot, while natural right-back Trai Hume, 24, capped 22 times by Northern Ireland and tied to the club until 2030, plays a line higher. Facing them is Leeds-schooled left-back Leif Davis, 26, a regular near the top of the EFL assist charts.
- Three Arsenal alumni feature. Sunderland centre-back Dan Ballard, 26, came through the Arsenal academy, has over 30 Northern Ireland caps and scored the winner in a Championship play-off final. Xhaka is another former Gunner, while Ipswich's bench holds Chuba Akpom, 30, an Arsenal youth product who won the 2022-23 Championship golden boot at Middlesbrough after spells at PAOK, Ajax and Lille.
- Ipswich's front line carries a shared thread. Lone striker Emerson, a 22-year-old, 186cm Brazilian, went from Athletico Paranaense to prolific form at Goztepe in Turkey and then Toulouse before England, the same club Diop once represented. On the right is Ghana international Fatawu Issahaku, 22, who came via Sporting and Leicester and can beat his man outside or cut inside.
- Sunderland's bench is stacked with expensive additions. Senegal midfielder Habib Diarra, 22, arrived for a club-record 30 million pounds and was part of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations winning squad; Morocco winger Chemsdine Talbi, 21, cost around 16.5 million pounds from Club Brugge; Nordi Mukiele, 28, brings Champions League experience from PSG and RB Leipzig; and 19-year-old academy graduate Chris Rigg offers a homegrown option to change the game late.