Southampton went marching into Selhurst Park and picked up all 3 points in a hard-fought match that got quite scrappy at times.
With a 2-0 victory over Palace, Southampton now find themselves in the top half of the table and battling for a potential Europa League spot for next season. It was a fantastic win for the club coming off of the match over the weekend against Wolves.
Danny Ings, was on the bench to start the match but that proved not to matter as the Saints found the back of the net twice without their leading goal scorer. Let us take a look at who were the key players in this victory.
Nathan Redmond
Redmond, was fantastic this match. He was doing a little bit of everything and was really causing the Palace defense issues all evening long. On top of being sharp and lively he collected an absolute beauty of a goal and assisted on Stuart Armstrong’s goal as well.
Let us take a look at some of the numbers from his MOTM performance. The Englishman (other than a goal and assist) had 34 accurate passes, 4 key passes, completed 5 dribbles, and created 5 chances.
This is the type of performance we all know he is capable of and if he continues scoring and setting up his teammates that not only relieves some pressure from Danny Ings to score all the goals but also gives the opposing teams another player to worry about.
Stuart Armstrong
Ever since returning from injury and getting a spot in the starting XI, Armstrong, has been one of our better players. The Scot, is playing fantastic football at the moment and is slowly becoming irreplaceable.
It is not only his ability on the ball that makes him valuable but also his movement off of it that makes him so dangerous. He opens up opportunities for himself and his teammates and has shown he can score from nearly anywhere.
He could have easily had 2 or 3 goals but will be happy with the one he scored that help double the lead over palace. His play, along with Redmond’s, is key to our attack and I do not see him losing his starting spot anytime soon.
James Ward-Prowse
Where to begin with this lad. First, Palace fans hate him and it is amazing. Second, he was asked to move to Right-back just about 20 minutes into the match due to an injury to Cedric and could not have done a better job marking the always dangerous, Zaha.
He won 11 duels, won 4 of the 5 tackles he attempted, 3 interceptions, and 6 recoveries. Not too bad for a fill-in defender. Since moving to be a midfield partner with Hojbjerg, Ward-Prowse has turned his season around and really a key cog to the team’s success.
Hopefully next match we get to see him back in the midfield but if not we know we have a halfway decent right-back with him.