Sunderland head coach Regis Le Bris knows how this story goes. It was Sunderland who spent huge bucks after promotion last season, breaking the assumption that teams who go up from the Championship go straight back down. For good measure, they qualified for the Europa League after finishing seventh.After a lack of business this summer, Le Bris might be looking over his shoulder nervously at Ipswich Town, who have a net spend of £136million ($186m) this transfer window as they attempt to avoid immediate relegation.New signing Emersonn, signed from Ligue 1 club Toulouse for £24m, opened the scoring after combining with another recent acquisition, Julio Enciso. Nilson Angulo’s cracking free kick levelled the scores, but Ipswich grabbed a 2-1 win and three morale-boosting points courtesy of Jack Clarke’s 90th-minute goal.When Ipswich were last in the Premier League two seasons ago, it was miserable. Relegated in 19th after accruing 22 points, they won only one league game at Portman Road all season, a 2-0 victory against Chelsea in December.It is early days, but they already have a home win in their pocket, a significant step towards doing better than last time.Transfer spendingIpswich’s net spend is the third-highest in the Premier League this summer, above Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United.You might say this helps guarantee success, but they still spent more than £100m in the window before their disappointing 2024-25 season.The fortunes of this summer’s arrivals will be key. Issa Diop and Sasa Lukic, who both joined from Fulham, played a combined 39 Premier League games last season. They are ready-made for this level and both played 90 minutes against Sunderland. New signing Florentino Luis appeared in 31 Premier League games for Burnley, but was out for the opener with a slight calf issue.Emersonn takes the plaudits after putting Ipswich ahead on his debut (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)The majority of Ipswich’s signings in 2024-25 were from the Championship: Clarke, Dara O’Shea, Sammie Szmodics and Chiedozie Ogbene.Those signed from Premier League clubs last time out — Omari Hutchinson from Chelsea (after a successful loan in the Championship) and Liam Delap from Manchester City — were young, inexperienced players the club could develop for profit.There are still projects this window, such as 22-year-old Brazilian striker Emersonn, but they have added pedigree with Daizen Maeda and Abdul Fatawu, two dynamic wingers who featured for Japan and Ghana at the World Cup.For a package worth more than £25m, the club’s largest outlay this window has been on Enciso, whose career has been stop-start but is a known entity to Ipswich. He scored two goals and registered three assists in 13 Premier League games during a half-season loan from Brighton & Hove Albion in the 2024-25 season. Still only 22, he was one of the few bright sparks from that campaign.“We’re trying to sign a couple (more) before the end of the window, so we’ll still get stronger,” Ipswich manager Gary O’Neil said in his post-match press conference.Julio Enciso looked the part, providing a superb assist for the opener (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)New managerIt would be hard to make the case that O’Neil is an outright upgrade on Kieran McKenna, who left in June as a legend after taking Ipswich from League One to the Premier League. At the peak of McKenna’s success, Manchester United, his former club, contacted the head coach’s representatives about taking over.O’Neil can at least boast reasonably successful spells with Bournemouth and Wolverhampton Wanderers. At Bournemouth, he finished 15th in 2022-23 and 14th with Wolves the following season. He succeeded Liam Rosenior at Strasbourg in January and led the club to eighth in Ligue 1 while reaching the Conference League semi-finals.The new manager was on the cover of the matchday programme, and fans will have high expectations following McKenna’s successful reign. The good news for O’Neil is that if he keeps them up, he will have done what McKenna could not.Gary O’Neil could not have asked for a better start as Ipswich manager (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)The memory of that relegation season could give Ipswich an advantage over fellow Premier League newcomers Coventry City and Hull City — many of their players have felt the slings and arrows of the top flight and can learn from those experiences.“We come into the season well aware of the challenges, which we experienced first-hand two years ago,” Ipswich chairman Mark Ashton said in Saturday’s programme. “The club needed that season after so long away from the top flight, and we are better for it in every way, on and off the pitch. We are better equipped for what the Premier League will throw at us.”Players who have improved“People would talk about the new signings, but the guys who were here and suffered the last Premier League campaign and how tough it was for them to get that first win today and perform the way they did — that is a really good sign,” O’Neil said in his post-match press conference.To fit Diop into the team, O’Neil has moved club captain O’Shea to right-back.“Dara has some good qualities that can help us at right-back,” O’Neil said. “As you can see aerially. The Premier League is such a test now, from long throw-ins and set pieces, and to have three centre-half types in your back four lets (left-back) Leif Davis be a bit more adventurous.”“I’m sure he’d (O’Shea) rather play centre-half but he’s very good at right-back, especially the way we use him. We’re quite compact and low on the right side, so he ends up in a sort of centre-back position, which helps him.”Dara O’Shea, captain and team player (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)Left-back Davis, who has been at the club since 2022, had one of the moments of the game when, in the opening minutes, he hustled back to block Brian Brobbey after the Sunderland striker burst through on goal and looked certain to score.It was Clarke who scored the winner against his former side after coming on as a 71st-minute substitute, cutting in and curling the ball into the bottom right corner.Even with Ipswich’s improvements, there remains uncertainty about which other established Premier League teams they can finish ahead of. But all Ipswich and O’Neil can do is focus on their own improvement and winning games. Like this one.