While there was disappointment at the failure to defeat Leeds on Monday night at Selhurst, there were plenty of positives including another clean sheet. Patrick Vieira will be keen for the Eagles to break the forty point barrier and they could do that this weekend with victory down on the South Coast.
DATE
30th April 2022
KICK OFF
3pm
VENUE
St Mary’s Stadium, Britannia Road, Southampton SO14 5FP
LAST TIME
The visitors got off to the perfect start down at St Mary’s in May 2021 as Christian Benteke scored after just two minutes. That seemed to set the hosts into action as Danny Ings drew them level which saw the two sides go into the break all square. Che Adams put the Saints into the lead straight after half time before Danny Ings secured the victory with their third and his second.
WHO SCORED MAN OF THE MATCH – Christian Benteke (9.0)
OFFICIALS
Referee: Jarred Gillett. Assistants: Lee Betts, Nick Hopton. Fourth official: Keith Stroud. VAR: Peter Bankes. Assistant VAR: James Mainwaring.
TEAM NEWS
PALACE – Nathan Ferguson (thigh) continues to miss out while Tyrick Mitchell (other) is a doubt. A late decision may be made on Luka Milivojevic (thigh).
SAINTS – Alex McCarthy (thigh) is a doubt and Valentino Livramento (knee) faces a lengthy spell out.
DISCIPLINARY
RED CARDS – Wilfried Zaha (1), James Ward-Prowse (1), Mohammed Salisu (1)
YELLOW CARDS (7+) – Conor Gallagher (9), Jan Bednarek (9), Mohammed Salisu (8), Oriol Romeu (8), Joel Ward (7)
FORM GUIDE
Last FIVE meetings between the two sides;
- 15/12/21 Palace 2-2 Saints
- 11/05/21 Saints 3-1 Palace
- 12/09/20 Palace 1-0 Saints
- 21/01/20 Palace 0-2 Saints
- 28/12/19 Saints 1-1 Palace
Last FIVE results for Palace:
- 25/04/22 Palace 0-0 Leeds
- 20/04/22 Newcastle 1-0 Palace
- 17/04/22 Chelsea 2-0 Palace
- 10/04/22 Leicester 2-1 Palace
- 04/04/22 Palace 3-0 Arsenal
Last FIVE results for Saints;
- 24/04/22 Brighton 2-2 Saints
- 21/04/22 Burnley 2-0 Saints
- 16/04/22 Saints 1-0 Arsenal
- 09/04/22 Saints 0-6 Chelsea
- 02/04/22 Leeds 1-1 Saints
LEAGUE POSITION
Heading into this fixture, Southampton sit 13th in the Premier League with 40 points from 34 games played, 2 points ahead of Palace in 14th who have played 1 game less.
RECORD AGAINST SAINTS
- Played 93
- Won 30
- Drawn 19
- Lost 44
FORM PLAYERS ACCORDING TO WHO SCORED
- Conor Gallagher 7.14
- James Ward-Prowse 7.07
- Wilfried Zaha 6.97
- Kyle Walker-Peters 6.91
ONE TO WATCH
JAMES WARD-PROWSE
FORMER CLUBS – East Lodge
The midfielder has been the thorn in many sides over the years but the 27 year old is arguably in his prime. He needs just one more goal scored from a direct free-kick to match David Beckham and Laurent Robert’s single-season record of 5.
KEY CLASH
MARC GUEHI v ARMANDO BROJA
The Palace captain in waiting has had a great first season in South London and will be up against a Chelsea loanee who has had an equally impressive campaign up front for the Saints.
PRE-MATCH FACTS
Southampton have won 56% of their 25 league games against Palace (W14 D7 L4) – of all sides they have faced at least 10 times in the competition, only against Swansea (58%) do they have a higher win rate.
Palace have won just 1 of their 12 league away games against the Saints (D3 L8), winning 2-1 in January 2018. The Eagles have never kept an away clean sheet against Saints in the Premier League.
The Saints have conceded 19 goals in their last 8 league games, conceding at least twice on 6 occasions in that run (W1 D2 L5). Their only win and clean sheet in this time was a 1-0 home victory against Arsenal.
The Eagles have drawn 14 league games this season, with no side having more (Brighton also 14). Only in 1992/93 (16) have the Eagles drawn more in a single Premier League campaign.
Christian Benteke has scored 6 goals in 13 league appearances against Southampton – only against Chelsea and Sunderland (7 each) has he netted more. The Belgium striker is without a goal in his last 11 league games, although only 3 of those were starts.
PRE-MATCH STATS
- GOALS – Wilfried Zaha (11 – 8th in PL)
- ASSISTS – Michael Olise (5)
- PASSES – Marc Guehi (2081 – 9th in PL)
- TACKLES – Tyrick Mitchell (96 – 2nd in PL)
- TOUCHES – Marc Guehi (2414 – 10th in PL)
- SHOTS – Wilfried Zaha (60 – 20th in PL)
- SAVES – Guaita (78 – 12th in PL)
DID YOU KNOW?
Originally, the club used the same crest as the one used by the city itself. However, during the seventies a competition was run for fans to design a new one. The winning design, was used for around 20 years, before being modified slightly in the nineties for copyright reasons.
PREDICTION
It is difficult to know what you are going to get from either team if these past few weeks are anything to go by but this could well be an exciting match up with a few goals. A win for Palace will see them leapfrog their hosts while the Saints could find themselves in the top ten with a victory if other results go their way.
FINAL SCORE: 2-2
BETTING ODDS
- Home – 11/8
- Draw – 9/4
- Away – 2/1
- Both teams to score – 8/11
RESOURCES
