English Premier
2019-01-30 - Southampton vs Crystal Palace
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Wednesday 30th January 2019 - Kick Off 7:45pm
Southampton
The FA Cup exit to Derby County was a blow for Ralph Hasenhuttl who was upset at seeing his Southampton team lose 2-0 leads in both the initial tie and the Replay before going out on penalties. The fans will forgive the players if they can find a way to get out of relegation trouble and Hasenhuttl has had a very positive impact at St Mary's with the whole club trending in the correct direction.
Recent results have seen Southampton climb up to 15th in the Premier League table and they are now 3 points clear of the bottom three, although the manager will be the first to admit plenty more hard work needs to be done. The Saints have improved to 2-5-4 at St Mary's in the Premier League where they have scored 13 goals and conceded 18.
Southampton are unbeaten in 5 games in all competitions in normal time, but the most impressive run is the consecutive Premier League wins over Leicester City and Everton which have pulled them out of the bottom three. They had been beaten in back to back home League games by West Ham United and Manchester City, but Southampton have won 2 of their last 4 League games here.
Mario Lemina is a doubt for this one, but Ryan Bertrand, Matt Targett and Charlie Austin could all be available.
Crystal Palace
Roy Hodgson was downplaying the importance of the FA Cup compared with how it was once viewed, but I have very little doubt the former England manager is very pleased Crystal Palace are through to the Fifth Round. His team selection certainly indicated he wanted to get into the hat for the next Round and Crystal Palace responded with a strong performance to beat Tottenham Hotspur.
Now the attention turns back to the Premier League where Crystal Palace are sitting in 14th place in the table and 3 points clear of the bottom three. This is a very big game for The Eagles, but they have to be confident with a decent 4-1-7 away record in the Premier League where they have scored 17 goals and conceded 21.
Crystal Palace looked to be moving away from the bottom three, but consecutive losses to Watford and Liverpool and improvements from those below them have just pulled them back into the fight. They had won away games at Manchester City and Wolves before leading at Anfield, but Crystal Palace couldn't hold on in a 4-3 defeat ten days ago.
Julian Speroni remains the only option in goal for Crystal Palace and they have an otherwise unchanged squad from the last game.
Head to Head
Southampton won 0-2 at Selhurst Park earlier this season.
Southampton had beaten Crystal Palace 6 times in a row in League matches before their 1-2 defeat to them last season. However it should be noted that Crystal Palace also won here twice in the FA Cup during their run of League defeats.
Prediction
Teams sitting in 14th and 15th in the Premier League meet on Wednesday and neither Crystal Palace or Southampton can feel very comfortable about their current positions.
Both teams are 3 points clear of Cardiff City in 18th place and that means the winner in this League game may begin to feel they are going to be able to pull away from the relegation zone. However the losing team will be in danger of being dragged into a very tough relegation battle and that makes this an important and potentially tense fixture.
Out of the two teams Southampton may be trending in a more positive direction with consecutive League wins behind them at the same Crystal Palace have lost twice in a row in the Premier League. However The Eagles have shown they can be very effective away from home and Southampton remain vulnerable defensively to say the least.
On the other hand Southampton have looked very good going forward with some key players reinvigorated by the arrival of Ralph Hasenhuttl as manager and I do think this could develop into a very good game of football.
It may be one for the neutrals rather than the fans who will know the importance of winning this fixture, but the attacking threats coupled with the defensive issues suggests we could see at least three goals here. The last 6 games at St Mary's have all featured three or more goals, while 4 of the last 5 Crystal Palace games away from Selhurst Park have done the same.
5 of the last 7 between these clubs at St Mary's have also produced three or more goals shared out and I will back that to be the case in this one too.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Southampton 2-2 Crystal Palace
