The Premier League clash between Crystal Palace and Southampton was always likely to fall short of the thrills and spills of the scintillating FA Cup contest between the two back in January. But boy did this one fall. For a match involving one of the most technically gifted sides in the division and a Palace team rampant on the counter attack, the dour display at St Mary’s proved quite a shock; the one true moment of class in the game, albeit aided by a spill from Julian Speroni, seeing Sadio Mane seal a much-coveted three points for the Saints.
With suspensions forcing Alan Pardew to reshuffle the pack, Dwight Gayle ploughed a lone furrow up front in place of Saturday’s hero Glenn Murray, while Joe Ledley filled Mile Jedinak’s elbows in front of the back four. James McArthur started alongside Ledley in place of the injured Jordon Mutch.
A pedestrian start saw Southampton settle into an early rhythm of low-tempo passing, with Palace displaying little desire to press the ball: in stark contrast from the high-intensity performance at Upton Park. Pardew’s tactics held firm with disciplined defending on the flanks from Joel Ward and Wilfried Zaha, and Martin Kelly and Yannick Bolasie, meaning the home side were forced to play through a congested midfield.
Southampton, being cautious of Palace’s pace and power on the break, were reluctant to commit too many bodies forward to aid the fruitless task of breaking down the Eagles rearguard. As such, any time possession was turned over, the usual space on the flanks available to messrs Zaha and Bolasie to surge into was diligently patrolled; resulting in balls being pinged up aimlessly to a sub-six foot and frustrated Gayle.
Graziano Pelle cut a similarly exasperated figure as Saints failed to carve open a real chance for the out-of-sorts frontman until late in the half. An underworked Julian Speroni was however called into action on the stroke of half-time as he parried a rasping deflected drive from Eljero Elia to Pelle, whom somehow conspired to miss the rebound from six yards. Fraizer Forster provided a similar, rare moment of excitement as he fumbled a looping cross from Bolasie, only for the lurking Zaha to be caught on his heels.
Pardew’s half-time message appeared to instil a tad more adventure in Palace’s play, with Jason Puncheon – having a rare underwhelming game – driving a shot straight at Forster from the edge of the area minutes after the restart. The next foray into Southampton territory saw Bolasie surge past Ryan Bertrand and draw a good save from Forster on the angle, before feeding Zaha in a similar position, only for his shot across the keeper to connect with the upright.
As the game settled back into a stalemate after some early Palace pressure, it was Ronald Koeman’s superior selection of substitutes that proved pivotal. Pardew, with his squad ravaged by injuries, included academy products Hiram Boateng and Jake Gray on the Palace bench, with Shola Ameobi providing his only attacking option. Koeman meanwhile, was able to first bring on £11 million signing Dusan Tadic for Elia and later replace Pelle with the legs of Shane Long.
The positive changes from Koeman paid instant dividends as Tadic flashed a free-kick narrowly over Speroni’s crossbar from the edge of the box, before whipping in a corner that Pelle flicked on at the near post, only for Maya Yoshida to poke wide with the goal gaping.
Koeman’s final change yielded the only goal as James Ward Prowse, having been brought on in place of Filip Djuricic, surged forward in the 83rd minute, evading a weak challenge from Scott Dann on the edge of the box before aiming a shot that Speroni parried straight to the feet of Mane. The one true moment of quality in the entire game saw the winger dink the ball over the hapless Argentine to strike a killer blow for the Saints.
Palace will be disappointed having seemingly wasted a lot of minutes and not gone for the jugular against a Southampton side patently short on confidence. However, the lack of a strong focal point up front to hold the ball up, with Murray, Yaya Sanogo and Marouane Chamakh unavailable, severely blunted the Eagles counter-attacking potential.
