Crystal Palace slip up vs Southampton at Selhurst Park in 2-0 defeat

A beleaguered Crystal Palace saw their five-game unbeaten run brought to a halt as two stunning Southampton goals saw the Saints climb above their hosts into the top 10.

Roy Hodgson’s side have battled through one of the worst injury crises the Eagles boss has ever experienced, and finally it showed.

Their character has been admirable in recent weeks, but just three days after pushing until the final minutes against Manchester City, Palace’s thin squad caught up with them as stunning goals from Nathan Redmond and Stuart Armstrong closed out a contest they were never really in.

Southampton had seen an unbeaten run of their own ended by Wolves at the weekend, but had won more games against Crystal Palace than any other side since their return to the Premier League in 2012.

With Tottenham up next in the FA Cup, Ralph Hasenhuttl opted to rest Danny Ings - wary that injury could leave his side without their best chance of staying in the division - with their top scorer on the bench.

As they so often are, Crystal Palace were happy to let their visitors dictate play early on, the pacey Michael Obafemi looking sharp against a back four which had endured a barrage from Manchester City only three days previous.

For all their possession there were very few clear cut chances for Southampton, and they almost gifted the opener to Palace when Jannick Vestergaard, back in for a first League start since November in place of the injured Jan Bednarek, tried to skip past Jordan Ayew 25 yards from his own goal and allowed the striker to sneak in, win the ball and find Cenk Tosun. The Turkish striker - who opened his Palace account on Saturday at the Etihad - had plenty of time to line up his second, but perhaps took a little too long and blazed well over.

His mistake was compounded minutes later. Jack Stephens sent a long ball forward for Redmond who collected and spun on the edge of the area while holding Martin Kelly at bay, before firing fiercely past Vicente Guaita into the far corner.

From there Southampton were firmly in the driving seat, Armstrong driving one low just past the outside of the post before Shane Long sent a header into the side netting from Ward-Prowse’s corner just before the break.

There was to be more drama going into half-time as VAR checked an incident between Wilfried Zaha and Ward-Prowse, the Palace winger catching the Saints man in the face while remonstrating with the England international following a few first half clashes. Zaha perhaps fortunate to emerge for the second half with Jonathan Moss, the VAR this evening, deciding there was not enough conclusive evidence that Zaha made contact with Ward-Prowse’s eye.

Redmond had been a pest drifting in of the left for the entire first half, and picked up exactly where he left off after the restart. The winger pulled inside once more, some neat footwork taking him clear of three Palace shirts to tee up Armstrong. The remainder of the Palace defence were slow to get out to the Scot, who bent a wonderful strike away from Guaita, onto the post and in.

Palace never showed any real signs of getting their way back in - a couple of half chances for Connor Wickham aside - with Zaha only growing more irate with every niggling challenge directed his way.

Palace have been prepared for this, their string of problems was going to catch up with them at some point. They’re form, however, has set them up well to deal with the odd bump in the road this season, but if Hodgson ever needed a clearer example of why new faces are needed this month, he need look no further than this evening.

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