Palace v Southampton

Selhurst Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Pardew: Under pressure to turn Palace's season around

Story so far

Crystal Palace have lost the last six matches in a row. Wow. Let that sink in for a second.

It's hard to see where the next win is going to come from, especially after last weekend's ridiculous 5-4 loss at Swansea. Manager Alan Pardew's job is hanging by a thread – so can he turn things around at Selhurst Park?

Claude Puel's Saints have had a solid start to the campaign, having lost just four times – one of which was a shock defeat against lowly Hull City – with no shame in going down to title-chasing Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United.

They are strong favourites to secure a successive victory after beating Everton last week and inflict more misery on the Eagles.

Saints have also won eight of their last nine league games against Palace and knocked Pardew's side out of the EFL Cup this season, too.

Scoring goals have not been an issue for Palace – 10 in the last five outings – but it's been well documented how bad they've been in defence, especially at set-pieces. They've shipped 17 goals in the last six matches. Crazy.

It will be fascinating to see if Pardew remains stubborn and sticks with such a cavalier philosophy for the visit of Saints, and if he does, then it points to another defeat and, surely, his P45.

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Team news

Striker Connor Wickham is facing a long spell on the sidelines after suffering cruciate ligament damage against Swansea.

Goalkeeper Steve Mandanda will miss out as he is set to have knee surgery and Loic Remy, Pape Souare and Jonathan Benteke are also unavailable. Yohan Cabaye is suspended.

Saints boss Claude Puel has no new injury concerns, with Dusan Tadic still out after breaking his nose on international duty with Serbia and Matt Targett also unavailable for selection.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"We've changed some situations, worked a lot harder on our low block this week, going over everything we can possibly do.

"We have to defend that last third, at set-plays, in a more resolute manner. I've not changed my back four too often in my career, so I don't think I'll be doing that.

"Most of the games I've lost in my career have been by one goal. I have good coaches here, very good coaches, and I'm sure we can get to the bottom of it."

Claude Puel

"It's always difficult to play in this stadium [Selhurst Park]. It's a little stadium with fans near the pitch and it's always difficult to play away at Crystal Palace.

"His team, like us, need points. They have good players, like Cabaye, Benteke and Zaha. It's important to consider all the players of this team, the staff also, and we know it's always difficult."

Southampton - league stats

Full league table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
21/09/2016	League Cup	Southampton	2 - 0	Crystal Palace
15/05/2016	League	Southampton	4 - 1	Crystal Palace
09/01/2016	FA Cup	Southampton	1 - 2	Crystal Palace
12/12/2015	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 0	Southampton
03/03/2015	League	Southampton	1 - 0	Crystal Palace

All time results

Last meeting

Southampton 2-0 Palace

Wednesday September 21 2016

Southampton: McCarthy, Yoshida, Fonte, Martina, Targett, Clasie, Ward-Prowse, Reed, Hesketh, Long, Austin

Subs not used: Davis, Soares, Stephens, Lewis

Goals: Austin (pen 33), Hesketh (63)

Bookings: Targett

Palace: Hennessey, Ward, Dann (Kelly, 19), Fryers, Delaney, Zaha, Cabaye, Mutch (Puncheon, 69), Lee, Sako (Benteke, 65), Wickham

Subs not used: Flamini, Speroni, Campbell, Townsend

Bookings: Cabaye

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