Crystal Palace vs. Southampton: Saints take on the Eagles in a must-win game
By Edward Waugh
With one point on the board after three games so far this campaign, Mark Hughes’ men will be desperate to achieve their first Premier League win of the 2018/19 season this weekend, when they visit London based side Crystal Palace.
It could be argued that the Saints have been extremely unfortunate so far this campaign, in that all three fixtures they have participated in have shown good performances (for the most part), whilst not having anything to show for it in their league position.
Last weekend, against Leicester City, the red and white showed real promise, with captain Ryan Bertrand scoring a cracker of a goal from the edge of the area – from that moment which was the 52nd minute of the game, the home team were put on the back foot by the foxes, the recap of the game being an unfortunate last minute winner by Harry Maguire.
This highlighted Southampton’s biggest weakness, one that has popped its ugly head from time to time over the past season and a half – a real lack of mental and physical strength to see out a result, the south-coast club have lost 24 points from winning positions since the start of the 2017/18 campaign.
Onto Southampton’s opposition now in Crystal Palace – the Eagles have had an average start to their campaign picking up three points – one win and two loses in the opening three games, however lost to Liverpool and Watford who also have won all three of their opening fixtures.
Their performance against Fulham on the opening weekend of fixtures highlighted the threat that Palace posses in their team, with their star man Wilfried Zaha notching in one of the goals on the day and beating a fellow London side that had spent over £100 million in the summer transfer window.
Both sides will enter this game in a confident mood following winning in their respective EFL cup ties this midweek – and will of course be looking to correlate this confidence into results in the league, starting this Saturday.
Why Southampton Will Win
Mark Hughes will need to start achieving results soon to keep any critics quiet, a string of three to four bad results in the league can start to create tension amongst the fans and therefore he’ll be looking to ensure that the Saints come away with nothing short of the three points this weekend at Palace.
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Southampton won this fixture last year, a Steven Davis effort early on the game gave the red and white a rare away win – this season the performances have already been more promising so a possible repeat could be the cards, as we know in football, history tends to repeat itself.
Following recent performances, and the win against Brighton on the road midweek, Southampton should be full of more confidence going into this game, and therefore might find this weekend is where they click and cause an upset at Selhurst Park.
Why Crystal Palace Will Win
Since Roy Hodgson’s appointment, the Eagles have been a very effective attacking unit, and with Zaha fit to start – Southampton will have a real problem on their hands in containing the Ivory Coast star, especially with their shaky defence.
Selhurst Park is yet to see a win for the home side so far this campaign, with Liverpool being the only fixture so far, and therefore Hodgson’s men will be pulling out all the stops to ensure that the home crowd go ‘home’ happy this weekend.
The return of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who served a one match game ban will likely return to the side for this game, and therefore Palace’s right of hand side of attack in him and Andros Townsend could be a deadly combination against the Saints.
Predicted Line-ups
Southampton
Goalkeeper: Alex McCarthy
Defenders: Cedric Soares, Jannik Vestergaard, Maya Yoshida, Ryan Bertrand
Midfielders: Mohammed Elyounoussi, Mario Lemina, Oriol Romeu, Nathan Redmond
Strikers: Danny Ings, Charlie Austin
Crystal Palace
Goalkeeper: Wayne Hennessey
Defenders: Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Martin Kelly, Mamadou Sahko, Patrick van Aanholt
Midfielders: Andros Townsend, Luka Milivojevic, James McArthur, Jeffrey Schlupp
Strikers: Wilfried Zaha, Christian Benteke
Predicted Score
Crystal Palace 1-2 Southampton