Premier League Match 4 - Crystal Palace 0 Southampton 2

A Better Dive from Pierre

This time last year we played Crystal Palace and it was Roy Hodgson‘s first game having been appointed to replace the hapless Ronald de Boer after four matches. We left Selhurst Park with a 1-0 win which really should’ve been much much more. Roy certainly got Palace playing though and in the end they stayed up quite comfortably, including turning us over at S.Mary’s in January.

There is no such thing as a one man team but as far as Palace are concerned, if Wilfried Zaha doesn’t play then they don’t win. One could only assume that our game plan beforehand was to stop Zaha from playing. Seeing as we now pick up shedloads more bookings then we used to, now Hughes is in charge, I fully expect us to adopt the ‘kick to kill’ approach which will mean that on some of the occasions when Zaha hits the deck, he will actually have been fouled instead of just diving like he always does. Great player though, it has to be said. It would certainly make Manchester United’s team better at the moment… Ha ha.

After the Brighton game and the praise that Hughes handed out to Sam Gallagher, I was somewhat disappointed to see that the big man hadn’t even made the bench and even more disappointed to see Shane Long, once again in the starting line-up. It was another run-out in midfield for the Hojbjerg-Lemina axis and overall it was attacking line-up with both wingers in Redmond and Elyonoussi and Ings joining Long upfront.

The main news was in the Palace line-up with Zaha out injured and therefore a debut for Jordan Ayew, who played for Swansea last year and was shit but that somehow earned him and move to Palace in the summer. Talking of shit, Benteke was upfront for them and he is on goalscoring barren spell right up there with Shane Long. I think 3 in 34 games. Hoedt and Vestergaard should really relish playing against the big man.

For some reason I find it amusing that from the kick off, we go back to Vestergaard who launches it and we win a throw in the corner.  Bertrand takes and Redders flicks on and Sakho and Hennessey make a really good effort to give us a goal by running into eachother, clearly panicked by the goalscoring prowess of Shane.  They just about get away with it.  To be fair to Shane, he is causing panic in the defence and he nearly fastens onto a cross from Cedric but it comes out to Hojbjerg who shots powerfully and sees it tipped over the bar.

You can tell that Benteke is ages without a goal as he is resorting to cheating, pathetically collapsing when anyone goes near him.  He’s supported up front by Jordan Ayew who is as explained earlier, shite.  We really have to take advantage of Zaha’s absence.  We win a free kick out on the right after Elyonoussi is manhandled and his delivery is aimed at Ings but met by Milovojevic’ flying header which Hennessey has to tip over the bar.

It’s been a comfortable first half but some namby Cedric defending puts us in a spot of bother as half time approaches and Milvojevic tries his luck from 30 yards and it’s comfortable for McCarthy.  Another goalless first half but we’ve been by far the better side.

A minute into the second half, total football breaks out.  McCarthy’s short goal kick is worked out to Cedric via Hojbjerg and Vestergaard in panicky fashion.  Cedric looks long towards Shane who misses it but the ball is misjudged by Kelly and Ings is in, toe poke, goal.  Only have one up front and we don’t score but we’ve got two, even if one of them never scores.  Get in.

Unbelievably, Palace also go all total football with Kelly striding out of defence, pass, pass, pass and then McArthur curls one in from 25 yards which pings off the angle of post and bar but I’m sure England’s number 1 had it covered.  Straight after that, carnage as Bentake smashes through Cedric and McCarthy blocks his shot, the rebound comes back in and Hoedt suddenly has the ball 2 yards in front of his own goal and produces a horrible scuffed clearance which means he has to throw himself at the next shot and there’s handball appeals and all sorts but we get away with it again.

Long is down and not carrying on and so the pace and work rate up front is gone because here comes Austin.  Within a minute it’s Cedric down the wing and a deflected cross which Austin scuffs goalwards and Wan-Bissaka strangely sticks a hand out to stop a shot that was barely going to reach the goal.  Penalty.  Austin of course grabs the ball and dribbles a horrific piece of shit down the middle of the goal and Hennessey, despite diving, easily kicks it away.  Fucks sake.

Another glorious chance goes begging when Cedric again plays it in and a superb flick by Ings gives Redders a chance.  He smashes it first time and Hennessey saves well at the near post and the rebound pops up and Elyonoussi gets a foot to it but can’t keep it down and it bounces off the bar and over.

Our final two substitutions can be looked at in two ways.  We’re either shutting up shop or handing the initiative to Palace with Ings and Elyonoussi coming off and Romeu and Targett coming on.  Targett goes left wing ahead of Bertrand and Romeu splits Hojbjerg and Lemina leaving Kebab boy up front on his own.  It’s now all Palace.  A cross from the left, a header back across and there’s Benteke with a free header with just McCarthy to beat.  Luckily, as previously explained, Benteke is shit and his header gives McCarthy a chance and it hits his knee and is cleared.

6 bastard minutes extra… and it’s all Palace.  Van Aanholt looks like he’s about the pull the trigger but we nick it off him and Hoedt calmly plays a lovely ball out to Targett on the left.  A ball inside and Hojbjerg is tanking it up from the back, past the last defender and I’ve no fucking idea what Hennessey was doing out there and Pierre rolled it past him from the edge of the box.  Get the fuck in!  We’re actually going to win.

Oh I do love a last-minute goal when it goes in our favour. What a bloody good win that is to get the season up and running. I am beginning to see things I like in this Southampton team. There is an element of ‘back to basics’ about it which has completely come from the manager. I can only speculate as to what made him throw away the three at the back formation which we played last season and all the way through preseason… but in games against teams that are not in the traditional top six, it does seem like a good idea. Maybe it’s a way to get both Redmond and Elyounoussi on the pitch at the same time or maybe it’s just a want to have more of a goal threat and two strikers (even if one of them is Shane Long).

Upfront, we look for more dynamic with Danny Ings being on the pitch and whilst many would prefer to see Gabbiadini partnering him, there is clearly something not right on that score. Hojbjerg and Lemina in the centre of midfield is again, more dynamic than having Romeu playing but there is no way you can see Romeu not playing against the big boys. That midfield pairing will work as long as Lemena can do it consistently and not going to his “can’t be arsed” mode. At the back, it’s clear that the two giants, Hoedt and Vestergaard will be first choice and whilst it will be scary against pacy attacking sides, in the main it will be fine. They had their moments today but in the main, they defended exceptionally well and if they were the sort of defenders who never make mistakes, they wouldn’t be playing for Southampton and Jurgen Klopp would be whisking them away to Blackpool for clandestine meetings.

I made a joke before again about the kick to kill approach that we now seem to have. It of course was an exaggeration but I don’t think we are a team to be fucked with anymore.  We will not be shrinking violets and will not get bullied by the more physical teams.

In the game overall, we were on top majority of the game and having got in front, the win was preserved buy some solid defending, really good goalkeeping and a shite centre forward for Crystal Palace. I wasn’t too enamoured with sitting back and trying to defend for the last 10 minutes but we got away with it and because of the confidence that we are playing with at the moment managed to break away and score a second goal when previously we would’ve just launched into touch.

The players are clearly playing for the manager as well. There are players clearly prepared to run through brick walls and there are smiling faces all over the place. Our captain was called out by many last year for looking generally miserable and after the disappointment he’s had an international level in the past few months, you could excuse him for not being over happy with life but there was one photo when the second goal went in - big beaming smile and clearly pumped up about our first win of the season. Not the best English left back, my arse. The second goal was also a bit of redemption for Pierre Hojbjerg after he was a major contributory factor as to why we lost to Leicester last time out with his rather stupid sending off. He deserves this moment today as he had an absolutely brilliant game.

The only real negative’s from today’s performance was Charlie Austin again whose lack of movement is at odds with the seemingly more dynamic approach that Hughes is trying to bring to the side. The penalty was absolutely fucking horrendous.  He had an argument with Tadic about taking penalties a couple of seasons ago, Austin said that the main centre forward should take the penalties. The main centre forward is now Danny Ings. Previously, Austin has always dribbled his penalties into one corner or another and up till now he has always sent the goalkeeper the wrong way. If the keeper goes the right way then he saves it and even if he goes the wrong way, he saves it if you dribble it down the centre of the goal like he did today. It was a bit of a mystery today, when we had a game plan that revolved around mobile strikers, why there was only one striker on the bench, with that being the immobile one.

So, we go into the international break with a win and as it stands, we are 10th in the league so suddenly it’s not looking too grim but we were in a similar position after a few games on the Pellegrino last season. The main thing is that this win makes us all feel that we are heading in the right direction after two years of the opposite.