Crystal Palace vs Southampton 22/23

Hi everyone, Hope you’re all well!

On Saturday 29th of October Palace hosted Southampton at Selhurst Park, it felt like I had been away for ages having missed the last game due to illness. Which was as the great 2-1 victory over Wolverhampton with goals from Eze and Zaha, although we were coming into this game off the back of a poor performance at Goodison Park leaving with a 3-0 loss against Everton. Southampton however we’re coming off the back of a 3-game unbeaten streak having held Arsenal to a 1-1 the week before. Patrick Vieira only made one change to the line-up compared to the Wolves game, this saw Doucouré be replaced by Milivojevic. Cheick missed the Everton game due to suspension but was also not in the squad for this game which may be due to injury. Under 21 captain, and lifelong Palace fan Jack Wells-Morrison was also named on the bench for the first time! Before the game there was a minute silence to mark remembrance Sunday and remember all those that lost their lives fighting for our country. The first 10 minutes included a good spell from Palace as we had some good phases of attack, with Eze, Olise and Zaha at the heart of them. Olise whipped some lovely balls into dangerous areas but just struggled to find the intended player. Southampton did not start the brightest losing the ball a lot and giving us fouls but we were unable to capitalise on this. Some great fast paced play from us down the middle including a fantastic touch from Eze before releasing Zaha down the wing into space driving towards the goal, Zaha’s pass across goal was just missed by an in-sliding Edouard and went just past the far post. A ball in behind found Edouard who was basically through, the defenders got back in time, so Edouard released Olise towards the box, it looked like he was brought down in the area, but the referee remained uninterested despite the appeals. A rare Southampton chance went just passed the far post! A long period of passing round trying to find a way through ended with a long shot from Eze which forced a save from the Saints keeper, the subsequent corner was wasted as it was too high for anyone in red and blue to reach. Shortly after Eze had another chance but his shot went just wide of the post yet again. On the half hour mark Edouard put the ball in the back of the net but the flag was up for offside so it did not count :( We were playing so well completely dominating the half in terms of chances but just couldn’t find the back of the net! But that was not for long! After winning the ball back in the middle of the pitch Zaha released Mitchell down the wing into space, his cross into the of the box did find the in-sliding Edouard and this time he found the back of the net! This took us into the break 1-0 up :)

Crystal Palace didn’t have the strongest of starts with Southampton on the front foot and us losing the ball too much. Milivojevic lost the ball in our final third putting us under pressure but two quick succession tackles from Ward and Andersen helped us clear. Five minutes into the half and Palace were poor to close down Che Adams allowing him to run towards goal and get a shot off, it was eventually saved by Guaita. We still didn’t manage to find our rhythm, so Vieira looked to the bench, bringing on Ayew for Eze. Eze did not have a good start after the break, giving the ball away a lot so this is understandable. This change saw Olise taking up a more central position. Adams had another chance to level the scores but again was denied by Guaita. On the 70th minute there was an applause in memory of Clive "Side-o" Waters, he was a well-known Palace programme seller who recently passed away at the age of 70. The next substitution break saw Hughes come on for an injured Edouard, hopefully it’s nothing serious! The most exciting piece of the half for us was when Olise won the ball on in our defensive half and drove out towards our box skipping past multiple Saints, he released Ayew, but his cross didn’t make it passed the first defender. The final substitution saw Olise be replaced by Riedewald, this was a bit of a weird decision as Michael was playing well. A late opportunity for Southampton saw their attacker skip pass Zaha and Mitchell but was stopped by a great tackle from Guehi. It was a very nervy end to the game, but we managed to hold up and get another 3 points!! The first half Southampton were poor and we should’ve pounced on this, we played really well but just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net, on another day it could’ve been 5-0 in 45 minutes; then in the second half the roles reversed as we let the Saints get back into the game and have confidence as we looked flat but thankfully they weren’t able to punish us! Still annoying not to see Malcom Ebiowei, Southampton struggled when our first wingers drove at them, so he would’ve been the perfect introduction; instead, 2/3 of our substitutions were negative, hopefully he gets a chance after the break!

Sadly, this was the final home game before the World Cup so we won’t be back to Selhurst for a Premier League game till Boxing Day, although I will be back on Friday for the under 21’s PL2 game against Leicester!! Thank you for reading Ellie Xx