Crystal Palace – Southampton

Crystal Palace hosts Southampton at the Selhurst Park in London in a game from the first round of the Premier League. Let’s preview this match in the coming few paragraphs.

The experienced manager Roy Hodgson did his magic again last season and helped Crystal Palace keep their place in the Premier League. The club performed in a pretty solid way and finished on a safe distance from the relegation zone. It was a successful season for the club.

Crystal Palace did their best to improve the squad during the summer. The club paid more than 17 millon euro to Queens Park Rangers for the Nigerian attacking midfielder Eberechi Eze. He’s just 22-years old, so we could call it an investment for the future. Meanwhile the right back Nathan Ferguson was signed with a free transfer from West Bromwich Albion. If the new signings click well with the team then it could be a nice upgrade for Palace.

Southampton kept their place in the Premier League after a very strong second part of the 2019/20 season. The Saints made some strong performances under the manager Ralph Hassenhuttl, so now survival remains the main goal.

During the pre-season Southampton made two important deals on the transfer market. The club paid some good money for Tottenham’s right back Kyle Walker-Peters and Real Valladolid’s centre-back Mohammed Salisu. The team had some problems in defense last season, so it’s understandable why Ralph Hassenhuttl chose to improve his backline. Defense always comes first and the Austrian manager knows this pretty well.

We can say this is a game between two teams which would be in a fight against relegation this season. If they can do something more then it’d be very nice for them and their supporters. Crystal Palace start the season at home, but without fans it’s not really that important.