Resilient Palace fight back to increase the pressure on Pellegrino
There was, according to Southampton chairman Ralph Krueger, a “cloud” hovering over the club while Virgil van Dijk waited to complete his move to Liverpool.
Van Dijk has now gone, of course, but on the evidence of yet another defeat for Mauricio Pellegrino’s side, those clouds will only darken further in the coming weeks. Even the long-awaited return to goalscoring form of Shane Long failed to lift the mood as a south-coast storm washed away all of Southampton’s composure in yet another painful defeat.
In woeful conditions, they simply tossed their lead to the wind and eventually extended their winless run to nine games. As the rain billowed down on Pellegrino at the end, it was accompanied both by the inevitable chants of “sacked in the morning” from the Palace supporters and furious boos from the home fans. A couple of Southampton supporters even burst onto the pitch to voice their anger.
Afterwards, Pellegrino spoke of his side’s lack of confidence, and bemoaned the way they had failed to “read the game” as Palace grew into the second half. He did, though, accept responsibility for the performance. “I understand the fans,” he said. “Everybody that wants the best for this club obviously expects a different performance, but this situation is not about just today. It’s about a period of time when he could not compete as we want.”
Having taken the lead through Long’s first goal since February, Southampton were out-thought and, crucially, outfought by a Crystal Palace side who once again demonstrated remarkable resilience.
Two second-half goals, from James Mcarthur and Luka Milivojevic, sealed a comeback that is doubly impressive considering only two days had passed since Palace’s exhausting draw with Manchester City. They have now lost only one of their past 11 games.
“After seven games we were on the canvas,” said manager Roy Hodgson. “It is an incredible achievement to get into the group of teams who could be relegated, rather than propping up the league.”
There was, however, bad news to go with the victory, as it emerged that both Jason Puncheon and Scott Dann had injured their cruciate knee ligaments against City, and will be struggling to be fit for the start of next season.
Southampton
(4-2-3-1): Mccarthy 7; Pied 6, Stephens 6, Yoshida 6, Bertrand 6; Romeu 6, Hojbjerg 6 (Gabbiadini 75); Ward-prowse 6 (Davis 70), Tadic 6 (Redmond 79), Boufal 5; Long 6. Subs Forster (g), Lemina, Targett, Bednarek.
Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1): Hennessey 6; Fosu-mensah 5, Kelly 6, Tomkins 6, Schlupp 5 (Sako 64); Milivojevic 7, Mcarthur 6; Townsend 6, Cabaye 5 (Van Aanholt 45), Zaha 6; Benteke 6. Subs Speroni (g), Lee, Souare, Delaney, Riedewald. Booked Fosu-mensah Referee Stuart Attwell (Warwickshire).