Southampton will be aiming to get their bid for the top four back on track when they welcome Crystal Palace to St. Mary’s on Tuesday night.
The wheels have come off Southampton’s season in recent weeks with their latest defeat coming at the hands of West Bromwich Albion at the weekend. In a period of games that has saw just two wins in their last six in the league, the Saints are dropping down the table, and they will face a difficult challenge to pick up a win against a side who defeated them at home recently in the FA Cup.
Crystal Palace are in a much better vein of form, losing one of their last four and picking up a significant 3-1 victory at the weekend away to West Ham United. As said previously, Alan Pardew’s side have already beat Southampton away this season, the difference here being that the upcoming match is a league fixture.
The outcome of the game will determine one of two things; whether Southampton have had their time in the sun, and if Crystal Palace are truly in a period of resurgence with Pardew at the helm.
Team News
Toby Alderweireld could return for Southampton in this fixture are dealing with a hamstring injury, however we will know for sure whenRonald Koeman has his pre-match press conference. Jay Rodriguez and Emmanuel Mayuka are the only long-term injuries.
Fraizer Campbell, Marouane Chamakh and Yaya Sanogo are all unavailable for Crystal Palace due to their respective hamstring injuries.Jonathan Williams and Jerome Thomas are also unavailable for selection.
Interesting Statistics
Southampton have only won two of their last six games in the league.
The Saints won 3-1 when they faced Palace in December.
Crystal Palace defeated Southampton 3-2 at St. Mary’s in the FA Cup.
Palace can only remain in 12th place at best even if they win this match.
Key Players
Southampton – Nathaniel Clyne
Clyne has played very well for Southampton this season and in recent weeks there has been talk of him moving to one of the league’s bigger clubs in the summer. He has made 25 appearances in the league this year and has scored two goals despite playing in defence. He has won 48% of his duels overall according to Squawka.com, however he has only won 45% of the tackles and just 34% of the headed duels he has been involved in. Unsurprisingly, Clyne has been involved in an average of five defensive actions per game with more than half of these being clearances. However, he has also made 48 interceptions over the course of the season. And with just one defensive error in that time, you can see why Clyne has been so good for the Saints. He will have to put in his best performance against Crystal Palace however if he is to prevent his team falling to another damaging defeat.
Crystal Palace – Joe Ledley
Despite missing some games earlier in the season, Ledley has went on to become one of Palace’s key players and has made 23 league appearances. Scoring two goals from midfield, he only has a 38% shooting accuracy from Squawka.com. He has created 18 chances for his team mates but so far none of these have resulted in assists. The Welshman has won just over half of all duels he has been involved in this season with him achieving a 53% rate in tackling specifically. However, he has only been able to take on opponents successfully eight times from 24 attempts. Like his counterpart at Palace, he has been involved in average of five defensive actions per game. Ledley has been very good in midfield this season and Palace will be relying on him to put in another good performance on Tuesday night.
Prediction
I can see this being quite a tight game and as such I am not completely sure who will ultimately be victorious. Given the form of both sides, I can honestly see it finishing as a draw and so I will go for a 1-1 scoreline.
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