Ipswich Town 2-2 Aston Villa

Aston Villa’s five-match winning sequence came to an end as they played out a 2-2 draw against Ipswich Town at Portman Road.

The Villans fell behind to Liam Delap’s eighth-minute opener but, for the third Premier League match in succession, came from behind to lead.

Morgan Rogers’ cool finish, his first goal of the season, levelled matters shortly afterwards while Ollie Watkins headed home his fourth goal in three league matches to put the visitors ahead in the 32^nd minute.

Villa were indebted to two superb saves from Emi Martínez to thwart Kalvin Phillips and Delap, but Delap’s second strike of the match after the break ensured the points were shared in the club’s first trip to Suffolk for six years.

The Villans remain unbeaten on the road this term, winning four and drawing one in all competitions, heading into Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League encounter against Bayern Munich.

Leon Bailey, having started Tuesday’s Carabao Cup triumph at Wycombe Wanderers, was included in Unai Emery’s XI, his first league start since being forced off at Leicester City in late August.

Bailey replaced injured captain John McGinn as the sole change from last weekend’s 3-1 triumph over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The history books were on Villa’s side having lost one of their last 14 meetings with Town and just one of their previous 10 in the Premier League, although it was the first top-flight encounter between the two teams since 2002.

But it was the Tractor Boys who opened the scoring with just eight minutes on the clock as Delap fired Jack Clarke’s cut back inside the near post from eight yards, with Martínez unable to keep the ball out.

However, the visitors were soon level as Rogers received the ball inside the area from Jacob Greaves’ defensive mistake, played a one-two with Watkins before sending goalkeeper Arijanet Muric the wrong way and converting into the bottom corner.

Clarke headed over for Town as chances continued to come at either end, and it was Villa who were next to take theirs.

Bailey delivered a pin-point cross from the right channel and Watkins was on hand to head home from three yards.

Martínez produced a stunning save to his left to parry Phillips’ fierce strike, before producing another just as impressive with his feet to deny Delap when clean through one-on-one, preserving Villa’s lead at the break.

Manager Emery introduced Jaden Philogene and Jhon Durán shortly after the hour mark, with clear-cut openings limited following the restart.

But that all changed in the 72^nd minute as Delap broke clear down Villa’s right, got the better of Diego Carlos and fired low beyond Martínez.

Pau Torres came to Villa’s rescue with an excellent sliding challenge to block substitute Wes Burns’ strike.

Ian Maatsen, Emi Buendía and Ross Barkley were introduced in the closing stages and the latter saw his long-range strike parried to safety by ‘keeper Muric.

Despite an end-to-end finale to the encounter, it finished honours even as Villa moved 11 league games unbeaten at Portman Road stretching back to 1984.