29 December 2024
Crystal Palace 2 Southampton 1
Crystal Palace welcomed Southampton to Selhurst Park in a must-win game for Oliver Glasner’s side. Having the team who are rooted to the bottom of the table visiting the capital seemed a massive chance to put some distance between themselves and the bottom three in the Premier League. The Saints are finding scoring goals a real problem, anything but a win for The Eagles would be points dropped.
It was the visitors who started in a positive style as they passed the ball around and retained possession. It was worked out to Walker-Peters who opted to take on Muric, dropped the shoulder and skipped past him. His ball into the danger area was knocked on by Armstrong and Dibling poked home to give The Saints the lead.
Selhurst Park was silenced as the day started to go horribly wrong. Nobody envisaged a defeat in their wildest nightmares after seeing most of Southampton’s games this season. Much like Sheff Utd and Burnley last season, they look like they brought a toothpick to a knife fight. Despite that, the hosts trailed at home after only fifteen minutes.
Southampton grew in confidence following the goal and started to dictate play. Aribo swung a tempting cross into the box and it was half-cleared by the hosts but fell to Bree at the back post but his volley was saved by Henderson in the Crystal Palace goal. This is what The Saints needed to show more of to stay in the top-flight.
The Eagles came forward on their first attack as Lerma looked for a one-two with Eze before getting a shot away from the edge of the box. It was straight at Ramsdale but the keeper felt the need to beat it away rather than attempting to hold onto it. His defence helped clear their lines to keep the hosts at bay on this occasion.
Glasner’s side seemed to start to find their groove in the game and had Southampton under intense pressure, camped in their own half. As Sarr looked to square a ball from the byline, Ramsdale blocked at the expense of a corner. With just over half an hour gone, the hosts were keen to find an equaliser before the interval.
Hughes clipped a cross into the box and Chalobah rose at the near post to head home. Ramsdale was sure that he was fouled by Mateta, preventing him from making the save. He may have had a point after seeing the replay, surely VAR would save his blushes after the referee awarded the goal. Unbelievably, after a long wait the goal was awarded.
Sarr then burst through the middle and The Saints could not cope with his pace. As he steamed into the box, he looked to slot it past Ramsdale but the former Arsenal keeper made a great save to turn it away. From the resulting corner it was flicked on to the back post and Mitchell tried a spectacular scissor kick but once again it was kept out by The Saints’ stopper.
After the interval, Southampton ventured forward once again. A deep cross into the box was hooked back across goal but no Saints’ player could get on the end of it when it mattered most. This is part of the problem for the visitors this season, they just do not have enough of an attacking threat in the penalty area, underpinning their poor goalscoring this campaign.
Palace forced a corner as Mateta tried to get the fans going with gestures. The Saints failed to fully clear the ball and it dropped to Eze just outside the box. He struck a venomous volley past Ramsdale and into the back of the net to give The Eagles the lead for the first time in the game. Selhurst Park erupted as it nestled in the back of the net.
This summed up Southampton’s first season back in the top-flight, they have played well in periods of the game but that is just not enough to win the matches needed to secure your status in the Premier League. They do not seem capable currently to have sufficiently sustained periods of dominance to do enough to put matches to bed.
Fernandes occasionally shows moments of brilliance but despite the impressive build-up, his finishing is not something to behold. There have been a few instances where he has missed gilt-edged chances at pivotal moments of the game. These missed opportunities are costing The Saints heavily as their chances of survival shrink by the week.
The hosts had plenty of opportunities to put the game to bed. Eze saw his free-kick from the edge of the box take a big deflection and narrowly shave the crossbar as it went over with Ramsdale beaten. Then a cross from Sarr was sliced towards his own goal by Bednarek. He was fortunate that his keeper reacted quickly enough to keep it out of the Southampton goal.
In the sixth minute of added time, The Saints threw everyone forward desperately trying to find an equaliser. Crystal Palace hacked the ball clear and were relieved to hear the referee blow the final whistle. Victory moved The Eagles five points clear of the relegation zone, with the visitors rooted to the bottom of the table.
Southampton are ten points adrift now at the foot of the table and it would be a brave man who would put money on them to stay up. There seems more of a chance of seeing Man Utd relegated this season, although that becomes more of a possibility with each game as the Ruben Amorim era seems more problematic than Gary Neville’s brief stint as Valencia manager.
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