Southampton-Crystal Palace Preview
Crystal Palace return home after a hugely disappointing result and performance at Everton, and Southampton are keen to further their misery.
Palace were blown away by Everton, losing 3-0 at Goodison Park last week.
Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl recognises Palace are a different prospect at their Selhurst Park home, but he has also noted their flaws.
"They are unique," he said. "This is a typical Crystal Palace team at the moment that you are always expecting. When you see the goals they have scored this season - super, super goals to score. Fantastic goals with beautiful counter-attacks. They definitely have the quality to hurt every team.
"But we have also shown in the past they have some parts they don't like. Especially when you set them under pressure, they are able to make some mistakes. You can definitely win some balls and score some goals against them."
Palace boss Patrick Vieira is also very aware of the work his team still have to do.
"I think performances like we had against Everton keep us grounded," he said. "We always talk about what we want to achieve as a team. We have a lot of areas of the game we need to work on and improve, and this is not an area that concerns me.
"I know the players by now, and they are players committed to taking the club to the next level through their work every day. This is why we want to bounce back from our performance against Everton and we want to perform well like we did in the last couple of games at home."
Crystal Palace – Eberechi Eze
Eze is a man in top form and has reportedly won a place in England's provisional World Cup squad. He will not settle for that, though, looking to earn a call-up for the final 26-man group by continuing to impress between now and the finals.
Southampton – Che Adams
Saints got a point against leaders Arsenal despite Adams only being fit enough for the bench. Their leading marksman will surely come back into the XI as soon as he is able to, though, looking to add another winner away from home after his goal at Bournemouth.
– Brighton and Hove Albion have never beaten Chelsea in the Premier League in 10 previous – Crystal Palace won 2-1 against Southampton in April but have never won consecutive Premier League matches against the Saints.
– Southampton have lost just three of their 13 Premier League visits to Crystal Palace (W6 D4), although they are winless in their last two at Selhurst Park (D1 L1).
– Southampton have scored 40 goals in their 26 Premier League games against Crystal Palace, at an average of 1.5 per game. Of teams they have faced more than 20 times in the competition, only against Newcastle do they have a higher goals-per-game ratio (1.6).
– Since a 0-0 draw with Fulham in December 2020, Southampton have conceded at least twice in each of their last nine Premier League away games in London (W2 D1 L6), shipping 24 goals in total in this run.
– Crystal Palace lost 3-0 at Everton last time out, but only twice have they lost consecutive league games under Vieira – a run of three in November/December 2021, and two in a row in April.
Updated October 28, 2022