Ipswich Town vs Liverpool Prediction: Premier League Matchweek 3 Picks (Sept 5, 2026)

By Cole Gallagher / August 18, 2026

Ipswich Town welcome Liverpool to Portman Road in a Matchweek 3 test of just how quickly a completely rebuilt squad can find its feet against one of the league’s heavyweights. Gary O’Neil, hired after Kieran McKenna’s departure, has overseen a summer spending spree of more than £100m on ten-plus new faces, while Arne Slot enters his third season at Anfield with his own squad questions to answer, headlined by an unsettled goalkeeping picture behind Alisson. Here’s our full breakdown, part of our ongoing coverage of the top betting sites for backing every Premier League fixture this season.

Odds Comparison

Team Analysis

Ipswich Town

O’Neil, who has plenty of experience keeping newly promoted or struggling sides above the drop zone, inherits a squad that barely resembles last year’s group. A club-record £24m went on young striker Emersonn, Daizen Maeda arrived from Celtic, Abdul Fatawu joined for £20m from Leicester City, and both Issa Diop and Sásá Lukić came in to reinforce the middle of the pitch, with Florentino Luís adding more midfield depth from Burnley. Out the door went goalkeeper Arijanet Muric to Sassuolo, Elkan Baggott to Millwall, and Wes Burns to Leicester, while club veteran Ashley Young has retired.

Key Storyline: Ten-plus new faces in one window is a lot to integrate at once, and O’Neil’s side may need time to find real cohesion, particularly at the back.

Liverpool

Slot remains at the helm for a third season, with his squad going through its own turnover this summer. The most notable subplot is in goal, where Alisson remains the nominal number one but has moved closer to a transfer to Juventus because of recurring fitness issues; that situation should be resolved either way once the transfer deadline passes on September 1. Elsewhere, Curtis Jones has spent time deployed as an emergency right-back rather than in his preferred central role, and his long-term future at the club has been the subject of some speculation.

Key Storyline: Liverpool’s goalkeeping picture behind Alisson remains unsettled heading into this one, even if it’s likely to be sorted by kickoff.

Key Betting Angles

The class gap here is real, and Liverpool have generally travelled well to newly promoted sides over the years. That said, Ipswich’s front line now features genuine attacking talent in Emersonn, Fatawu and Maeda, all signed specifically to make Portman Road a tougher watch for visiting defences. With Liverpool’s own squad still bedding in a few new faces and settling its goalkeeping situation, both teams to score looks like the smarter angle here rather than backing a Liverpool shutout.

We are tracking the full Premier League Matchweek 3 slate, plus everything else on the board, over on worldcupbetting.ca.

Our Prediction

Cole’s Pick: Liverpool to win

Liverpool’s overall quality and depth should be enough to get the job done on the road, even with a few squad issues of their own to sort out. Ipswich’s new-look attack gives them a puncher’s chance of scoring against a defence that is still finding its settled shape, but we don’t see enough here yet from a newly assembled Ipswich side to trust them for a result against this calibre of opponent.

Confidence: high on the result, medium on the margin given how early it is for Ipswich’s new-look side

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Cole Gallagher

Cole Gallagher covers soccer betting for WorldCupBetting.ca, specialising in match predictions, odds analysis and tournament futures. Based in Toronto, he has followed the Canadian men’s national team since their 2022 qualifying campaign and brings a line-shopping, data-first approach to every pick.