MY ACCOUNT
Crystal Palace and Southampton have been evenly matched against each other in recent years, with the pair claiming two wins apiece and sharing two draws in the past three campaigns.
There has also been a maximum of nine points separating them at the culmination of the past three seasons, with neither finishing higher than 11th or lower than 15th and no more than three positions separating them in any one campaign.
They are each the epitome of a mid-table club — avoiding trouble is the aim and a top-half tilt a bonus — and both rarely find themselves far from the safety of the centre of the pack.
But while form and fortunes have been erratic for the pair over the early stages of 2022-23, it is Southampton who find themselves in a spot of bother this time.
Saints sit only a point behind the Eagles but have played a game more and if results go against Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men this weekend, they could find themselves in the bottom three of the Premier League with a third of the season gone.
Team news
Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira has a number of players closing in on a return, but while long-term absentee Nathan Ferguson and right-back Nathaniel Clyne are back in training it is doubtful either are ready to return just yet.
Defender Chris Richards is in a similar position as he looks to return from his August injury but goalkeeper Jack Butland and midfielder James McArthur are both still out.
Cheick Doucoure returns from a one-match suspension and will reclaim his defensive midfield role off Luka Milivojevic, who deputised at Everton last weekend.
Hasenhuttl has had to deal with several long-term injury issues this season and could now be without both right-back options until the new year — Valentino Livramento is expected back in January while no timescale has been put on Kyle Walker-Peters’ return so Brazilian centre-back Lyanco is likely to again deputise.
Fellow centre-back Armel Bella-Kotchap is likely to be a week or two from returning but midfielder Romeo Lavia has an outside chance of making the bench having not featured since August.
Loanee Ainsley Maitland-Niles missed out against parent club Arsenal last weekend but returns to the squad against Crystal Palace.
The stats
Southampton are currently on their longest unbeaten run of the season — a three-match sequence that includes 1-1 home draws against West Ham and Arsenal and a 1-0 win at Bournemouth.
That run comes on the back of four successive defeats against struggling trio Wolves, Aston Villa and Everton, as well as a 4-0 loss to Manchester City.
It rather sums up Southampton’s erratic campaign that after losing to three teams struggling against relegation, they followed up with positive results against improving West Ham, a Bournemouth side on a six-match unbeaten run and league leaders Arsenal.
And prior to their four-match losing run they had beaten Chelsea 2-1.
Crystal Palace also bucked a trend last weekend, seeing a strong run of performances ending abruptly in a dismal 3-0 defeat at Everton.
Prior to that, however, the Eagles had lost to only a 90th-minute goal against Chelsea in six Premier League outings and the Everton defeat is the sole outlier in Palace’s form.
Prior to the Goodison Park defeat, the Eagles had lost only to highflying Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea, while drawing away at Newcastle.
They held eighth-placed Liverpool and 11th-placed Brentford to draws, while winning all three home games against teams below them.
Prediction
Southampton’s up-and-down performances are probably to be expected given Hasenhuttl’s squad is the second-youngest in the Premier League, but it makes them a nightmare to predict.
However, there are caveats to all three of their recent positive results.
Arsenal looked fatigued after many of their main men had played in the Europa League on Thursday night, Bournemouth are nowhere near as good as recent results suggest and West Ham bossed their draw against the Saints, creating 1.5 expected goals to Southampton’s 0.6.
And Palace’s blip last weekend at Everton could say more about their lack of depth in midfield than offer any hint of a downturn — it is telling that in Doucoure’s only absence this season Palace’s midfield suddenly looked a mess.
With Doucoure back, the Eagles should return to their reliable former selves and continue beating the lesser visitors to Selhurst Park — back the Eagles at 10/11 with LiveScore Bet.
