Alexander Isak scores twice in three minutes as Liverpool win 2-0 at Ipswich

Andoni Iraola had drawn his first two league games in charge of Liverpool. The third was settled inside nine minutes at Portman Road. Cody Gakpo found Alexander Isak in the box on 6 minutes for a right-footed finish, and did the same again three minutes later for a left-footed one. 2-0, and the game was effectively over before a lot of the crowd had sat down.

Isak had a third goal ruled out for offside on 33 minutes, and Ipswich had a penalty appeal waved away by VAR on 70 after their own player was found to be offside in the build-up. Bradley Barcola, Liverpool's marquee summer signing from PSG, made his Premier League debut off the bench in the second half.

First win, first clean sheet

It is a small but real landmark for Iraola: his first win and first clean sheet since taking over at Anfield. Ipswich, under Gary O'Neil, actually finished with more shots than Liverpool but could not turn territory into anything on the scoreboard.

The two league games before this one had both gone the same way for Iraola's Liverpool: a lead thrown away, then a late goal to get something out of it. At Newcastle on the opening weekend, Anthony Elanga and Joe Willock put the hosts 2-1 up before Dominik Szoboszlai's penalty in the ninth minute of stoppage time salvaged a 2-2 draw. A week later at Anfield, Nottingham Forest led twice through Dan Ndoye and a Morgan Gibbs-White penalty, and it took a deflected Víctor Muñoz strike off the underside of the bar at 82' to make it 2-2 again. Two draws, four goals conceded, and a manager still waiting to see his side lead and stay in front. Isak's brace inside nine minutes and a first clean sheet in three attempts settled all of that in one afternoon.

A third straight test for Ipswich, and a second straight loss

For Ipswich, this was the conclusion of a run that had been flagged before a ball was kicked: after beating Sunderland 2-1 in Gary O'Neil's first game back in the Premier League, O'Neil's side went to Manchester United and lost 5-2 — Leif Davis's early goal put them ahead before Bruno Fernandes scored a hat-trick — then came home to a Liverpool side chasing its first win of the season. Three matchweeks, three markedly different tests, and after the opening win over Sunderland, back-to-back defeats to two of the division's bigger clubs.

The shot count tells its own story about where Ipswich actually stand. They had 14 attempts to Liverpool's 10 at Portman Road, a reversal of the 9-33 gulf they were run into at Old Trafford the week before. Getting off more shots than one of the Premier League's traditional heavyweights is progress by any normal measure; finishing with nothing to show for it, for the second week running, is the part O'Neil still has to fix.

Match facts

• 6' — Alexander Isak (Liverpool), assisted by Cody Gakpo
• 9' — Alexander Isak (Liverpool), assisted by Cody Gakpo
• 33' — Isak (Liverpool) — goal disallowed for offside
• 70' — VAR review overturns a Liverpool penalty appeal for an offside in the build-up

What's next

Ipswich stay 14th on 3 points and go to Crystal Palace on Saturday 12 September. Liverpool move to 6th on 5 points, one place outside the Europa League spot, and host Fulham the same day at Anfield.