Crystal Palace vs. Southampton
Venue: Selhurst Park
Kick off: 3PM
Crystal Palace and Southampton meet at Selhurst Park this afternoon on the opening weekend of the 2020-21 Premier League campaign.
The Eagles finished last season 14th in the table, nine points and three places behind matchday one opponents Southampton.
Palace were in outside contention for a European spot at one point in the final third of last season, only to going on an alarming slump to see out the campaign.
Roy Hodgson’s men finished with seven successive losses before holding Tottenham Hotspur to a 1-1 draw on the final day.
The Eagles failed to score in six of those seven defeats, explaining exactly where their biggest problems came last season – in attack.
Indeed, only relegated Norwich City (26) scored fewer goals than Palace’s 31 in 2019-29 – Jordan Ayew top scoring for Palace with nine figures.
Hodgson will hope that he has resolved the goalscoring issue with the additions of Eberechi Eze, Nathan Ferguson and Michy Batshuayi, the latter joining on a season-long loan.
Batshuayi impressed during a half-season spell with Palace in 2018-19, scoring six times in 13 appearances, and will be looking to hit the ground running this afternoon.
Palace have a poor record in Premier League meetings with Southampton, however, winning just three of their 22 such matches and losing the last three at home.
The Saints will enter this game with some confidence, too, having ended the elongated 2019-20 season on a good run of form.
Ralph Hasenhuttl’s charges beat Bournemouth and Sheffield United in their final two games, making it seven games without defeat to conclude the campaign.
After a shaky start to their first campaign under the “Alpine Klopp”, Southampton went from strength to strength and will be looking to break the top 10 this time around.
Like their opening-round opponents, the South Coast side have also strengthened this summer by bringing in Kyle Walker-Peters permanently and Mohammed Salisu from Real Valladolid, although midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg did depart for Tottenham.
A lack of action since their last league outing on July 26 may tell this weekend, though, whereas Palace have played four friendlies during the shortened pre-season.
After beating Oxford United, Charlton Athletic and Millwall without conceding, the Eagles drew 1-1 with Brondby last week in their final run-out before this tough opening test.
Crystal Palace possible XI: Guaita, Ward, Kelly, Dann, Mitchell, Zaha, Milivojevic, McArthur, Schlupp, Batshuayi, Ayew.
Southampton possible XI: McCarthy, Walker-Peters, Stephens, Bednarek, Bertrand, Djenepo, Ward-Prowse, Romeu, Redmond, Ings, Adams.