Ipswich v Liverpool LIVE: Premier League result and reaction after Salah and Jota scored in new era for club

The fans have already started arriving at Ipswich ahead of their return to the top flight:

Here’s Richard Jolly’s report from the opening game of the 2024/25 season...

It is, apparently, not how you start but how you finish. Joshua Zirkzee started his Manchester United career with a telling finish that bodes well for the rest of it. He began his debut on the bench and ended it as the match-winner. Old Trafford may have a new goalscoring hero and if the evidence of their opening night was that Erik ten Hag’s side needed one, a newcomer obliged.

The United manager stands accused of signing too many of his fellow Dutchmen. For a £42m buy, however, it amounted to an ideal beginning, a veritable theatre of a dream debut. Even in helping Bologna qualify for the Champions League last season, Zirkzee was not prolific. Yet it only took 26 minutes for him to open his United account with a goal that showed he can be both finisher, but also much more than a penalty-box poacher.

Zirkzee had dropped deep to collect the ball, fed it wide to Casemiro and accelerated into the box. He stuck out a left leg to poke in Alejandro Garnacho’s cross. Two substitutes combined for an opening-day win that, for the first time in Ten Hag’s reign, sent United top of the league, albeit when 18 other sides are yet to play.

Something that could potentially have a huge effect on the outcome of Liverpool’s season...

There are only a handful of people who know exactly what is happening in the Manchester City case and one of them had to promote the new Premier League season this week.

“It’s clear we have some regulatory challenges,” competition chief executive Richard Masters said. “But I’m confident we can navigate all of that and, by the time we sit down again in 12 months, a lot of that stuff will be clearer and we can have the way we always want it, which is the football front and centre.”

It’s quite a hopeful spin that is perhaps natural from the world’s most bombastic league, especially since this season could involve a storm like no other. This could well be the most controversial and consequential campaign in the English game’s history, that reaches both Bosman and Italy’s Calciopoli in terms of its effects. It could change the face of the table, the future, the past, as well as the Premier League’s very image. An outcome of the City case is expected by April, but any time that late is almost even worse for the Premier League.

New faces at Portman Road today...and some very familiar ones!

The teams are in for the early kick-off - we get them 75 minutes before the start of matches this season remember, not an hour!

Ipswich are without new goalkeeper Muric who has a calf issue, but new additions Hutchinson and Delap are in.

Liverpool opt for for Jarell Quansah in defence for Arne Slot’s first match, while Ryan Gravenberch could be at the base of midfield after being trialled there in preseason.

IPS: Walton, Tuanzebe, Woolfenden, Greaves, Davis, Morsy, Luongo, Burns, Chaplin, Hutchinson, Delap

LIV: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Van Dijk, Robertson, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Salah, Jota, Diaz

Today’s match will be the 73rd meeting between these two sides, with the first taking place in 1954.

Liverpool have won 37, with Ipswich winning 14 and 21 ending as draws.

The two sides last played in 2002, with Liverpool winning 5-0 and 6-0 in the Premier League before a 1-1 draw in the League Cup in December that the Reds ended up winning on penalties.

The last Ipswich win came in December 2000, when the Tractor Boys won 1-0 at Anfield. They haven’t beaten Liverpool at home since February 1986, when they won 2-1.

This is Ipswich’s first game in the Premier League in 22 years. Their last match was on the final day of the 2001/02 season, when a 5-0 loss to Liverpool confirmed their relegation – their last player to score a top-flight goal was Darren Bent in April 2002.

The Blues have scored 92 league goals in each of the past two seasons, a number bettered only by Manchester City and Stockport County (96) in the top four divisions.

Ipswich have not lost their opening league match in any of the previous 10 seasons (W6, D4), and are unbeaten in 21 home league games. Their only defeat in the past 39 at Portman Road was a 4-3 loss to Leeds a year ago.

This will be the fifth time in six years that Liverpool have atarted the season against a newly promoted team. They last lost the season opener in 2012, falling 3-0 to West Brom.

The Reds recovered 28 points from losing positions last term. Salah has scored a joint-record eight Premier League goals in the opening round of fixtures, with last season being the only time he has failed to score in their first match.

So, will their signings be enough to keep Ipswich in the top flight?

Survival in the Premier League has become increasingly difficult for clubs newly promoted from the Championship.

Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton all went straight back down to the second tier last season, and plenty expect the same fate 2024/25’s new arrivals Leicester City, Ipswich and Southampton .

Which team, though, is in the best shape to avoid the drop? We’ve assessed each of the Premier League newcomers and their chances of remaining in the top-flight.

Where will Liverpool and Ipswich finish this season? The Independent’s sports desk has its say...

Hold on to your hats once again everyone: the Premier League is back this weekend.

Manchester City, after their fourth title in a row, are aiming for a magnificent five-in-a-row - but will this be the season Arsenal finally get over the line and win a first top-flight crown in 21 years?

Liverpool will be an intriguing watch under new manager Arne Slot and a total of five clubs will take to the new season with a fresh look in the dugout, with Enzo Maresca at Chelsea, Julen Lopetegui at West Ham, Steve Cooper at Leicester City and Fabian Hurzeler at Brighton.

Maresca at Chelsea will be a fascinating watch and how will Erik ten Hag fare at Manchester United after being given a new contract? The journeys of the newly-promoted trio of Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton will be interesting, too.

Now, our writers make their predictions for the next season:

New Liverpool manager Arne Slot faced the media ahead of his first official match in charge of the Reds against Ipswich Town and was predictably quizzed about the club’s lack of transfer activity - but he insisted the squad was good enough to compete and that the market wasn’t the only way to strengthen.

The Reds were thought to be close to making Martin Zubimendi their first signing of the summer, and of the Slot era, but the Basque midfielder opted to stay with his current club Real Sociedad instead.

Slot, though, isn’t perturbed and has had a largely positive summer in the build-up to the start of 2024/25.

“I’ve said many times, our squad is really strong and it’s not easy to find player who can help us. Zubimendi was one to be fair but he decided not to come so we go on with the ones we have. We’re in a good place and in the background [sporting director] Richard [Hughes] is trying to strengthen the squad as he can.”