Crystal Palace 1-0 Southampton: Three Match Takeaway Thoughts

English referee Jonathan Moss shows a yellow card to Southampton's English defender Kyle Walker-Peters (L) for a foul on Crystal Palace's English defender Tyrick Mitchell, after overturning his own decision of a red card after consulting the replay screen during the English Premier League football match between Crystal Palace and Southampton at Selhurst Park in south London on September 12, 2020. (Photo by Alastair Grant / POOL / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / (Photo by ALASTAIR GRANT/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) /

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Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace and James Ward-Prowse and Danny Ings of Southampton (Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images) /

On a bright Saturday afternoon in South East London, Southampton continued their unenviable run of poor opening day performances by losing to a spirited Crystal Palace side.

In truth, it was a lacklustre and wasteful performance from Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men, a far cry from the imperious performances produced during project restart. Although Saints dominated possession, they looked susceptible to the counter throughout and a pacey Palace front three exploited the away side’s unnecessarily high line.

An early break down the right-hand side by a rejuvenated Andros Townsend, saw him look up and provide an inch perfect cross to an unmarked Zaha at the far post. The wantaway Ivorian took the chance first time and smartly steered the ball past a despairing McCarthy.

Southampton boss Hasenhuttl made a change at half time by introducing Jannik Vestergaard for an unusually subdued Bednarek. The giant Dane injected some impetus into proceedings and his performance was encouraging given the focus on his errors last season.

Nevertheless, Saints were unable to make their possession count, with Redmond guilty of spurning two guilt edged chances. Ings and Adams battled hard, but the absence of Armstrong meant there were merely scraps to feed off.

The final talking point (more on this later) was a decision by Jon Moss to send off Kyle Walker-Peters, which the former subsequently overturned upon a VAR review. Ironically, going down to ten men might have given Southampton a sense of urgency which was severely lacking.

Here’s three takeaways from the game at Selhurst Park: