Southampton vs Crystal Palace
Date: 30/01/2019
K/O: 7.45pm
Venue: St Mary’s Stadium
Referee: Andre Marriner
The Saints host Crystal Palace on Wednesday night and find themselves in a patch of good form having won their last two league games against Leicester City and Everton by the same scoreline of 2-1.
In fact, since the appointment of Ralph Hasenhuttl at the start of December, the Saints have won four of the eight games he has had in charge – a certain upturn of form having only notched up the solitary one win in 15 games prior to his appointment. That victory just so happened to be the 2-0 away win at Selhurst Park, where goals from Danny Ings and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg were enough to take all three points back down to the South Coast.
James Ward-Prowse has in particular benefited from the Austrian’s arrival and while seeing an increase in his time on the pitch his goal tally has also improved, scoring in back-to-back games for the first time in his career. While the youngster will be hoping to make it three goals in three, it is Danny Ings who will be looking forward to the visit of the Eagles most as he has managed two goals in his last three appearances vs Palace in the league.
As for Roy Hodgson’s men, a Palace player who might be looking forward to the game more than most is the returning Christian Benteke. The Belgian striker has only managed appearances off the bench since his come back from the injury which kept him out of the latter quarter of 2018 yet he has managed five goals in eight games against the Saints and could be targeting the fixture as a game to kick start his season.
This meeting finds the two clubs almost in parallel as they sit next to each other in the league table, both with 22 points, with the Eagles just ahead of Southampton on goal difference. If recent history is to continue, this won’t be the situation after Wednesdays match as there hasn’t been a draw between the two sides since February 2008. Since then there has been 19 match-ups between the two with Southampton having the lions share of the victories with 12 compared to Palace’s seven.
Palace have contrasting form in the league after losing their last two to Watford and Liverpool respectively which will fill Southampton with confidence ahead of the fixture. Yet with a win over Tottenham in the FA Cup over the weekend, Palace will be confident in themselves that they can pick up a result.
Team News
Southampton
The home side does have quite the list of players currently unavailable through a variety of reasons. Some have departed St Mary’s during the transfer window – Cédric Soares (Inter Milan), Stephen Davis (Rangers), and Wesley Hoedt (Celta Vigo) have all gone out on loan; while Manolo Gabbiadini has joined Sampdoria on a permanent basis. Maya Yoshida is currently on international duty with Japan at the Asian Cup so will also be unavailable.
One player more than likely ruled out through injury is youngster Michael Obafemi, who has been out since the end of December with an abdominal injury; which was said by Hasenhuttl to “take a few weeks more” to recover on the 10th January.
There will be doubts over a few other players too, defender Matt Targett went off with a knock in the victory over Everton last time out, whereas Ryan Bertrand and Mario Lemina, who were both supposed to be back fit and healthy, are still reportedly having problems with their respective injuries.
Crystal Palace
Palace’s injury troubles are currently in the goalkeeping department. With first choices, Vincente Guaita and Wayne Hennessey both missing the last league game with Liverpool, as well as the FA Cup game with Spurs through injury, long-term servant of the club Julian Speroni has deputised with mixed results. Goalkeeping howlers were contributing factors to Liverpool’s three points last time out in the league yet the veteran keeper made up for it after keeping a clean sheet against North London rivals in the cup.
His place in the starting XI is not certain though, as comments were made in commentary over the weekend that both Guaita and Hennessey could be back in contention by midweek – although there has been no timeframe assigned to either player’s return. The goalkeeping dilemma has forced Palace to hunt in the transfer market and the new arrival of 21-year-old Lucas Perri on loan from São Paulo for the rest of the season could be seen as soon as Wednesday.
The only other injury concern is over Pape Souaré, who was taken off after dislocating his shoulder in the FA Cup victory over Grimsby Town at the start of January and is not expected to return to the squad till the start of March.
Predicted Starting XIs
Southampton (3-4-3): McCarthy; Bednarek, Stephens, Vestergaard; Valery, Romeu, Højbjerg, Targett; Redmond, Ings, Armstrong
Crystal Palace (4-3-3): Speroni; Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Sakho, van Aanholt; McArthur, Kouyaté, Milivojević; Townsend, Ayew, Zaha
Score Prediction: Southampton 1 Crystal Palace 1
Both sides will be full of confidence at the time of kick-off, and although there hasn’t been a draw between them in the last decade, I think it’ll be too close to call this time around. Despite Southampton not having a fixture during the weekend, Palace did make changes against Tottenham and most will be fully rested for the trip to the South Coast.
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