Southampton are hosting Crystal Palace for their Premier League fixture at the St. Mary’s Stadium on Tuesday. The visitors finally stopped the 18-game win streak of Manchester City after holding them to a 0-0 draw. An enthralling matchup which saw neither of the City attackers able to get the goal.
Palace even had an opportunity to take the 3 points but Luka Milivojevic’s late penalty got saved by Ederson in the dying minutes of the game.
Roy Hodgson has finally figured out a way to get points with the current Palace squad. The Eagles have lost just one match in the entire month of December and are favoured to escape relegation if they continue to play like this for the remainder of this season.
They are not out of the woods just yet, with a point above the bottom 3 and their star attacker, Wilfried Zaha drawing heavy interest from top Premier League clubs.
Southampton’s winless run now has stretched to 8 games in the league and Hodgson will be eager to add one more game to that streak.
He is expected to field his men in the 4-3-3 formation.
Defence
Julian Speroni should get the nod ahead of Wayne Hennessey in between the sticks. The duo has faced rotation on multiple occasions this season with the manager actively seeking a goalkeeper from the January transfer window.
Martin Kelly is expected to be shifted to the centre-back role alongside James Tomkins. Scott Dann picked up an injury in the last fixture and is currently being assessed for return timeline.
Timothy Fosu-Mensah was solid for the Eagles in the right-back position and might be featured again in this fixture.
After a horrific injury, Pape Souare returned to the squad in the last fixture. However, Jeffrey Schlupp is expected to get the nod ahead of him in the left-back role.
Midfield
James McArthur might replace Luka Milivojevic in the central midfield role for this fixture. Yohan Cabaye and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are the predicted starters alongside the Scotsman.
Attack
The injury to Jason Puncheon in the last fixture deems him as a null option to replace Wilfried Zaha on the left wing. The Ivorian international is expected to resume his duties with the Andros Townsend on the right.
Christian Benteke is the first pick to take up the lone striker role but might get replaced in the second way to make way for Bakary Sakho. Benteke has scored just 1 goal in the league this season and will be eager to improve on that tally in this fixture.
