Having lost 5 of their last 8 in all competitions, including an unlucky League Cup Final defeat to Man Utd, Southampton are enduring a tricky end to the season. Their disappointing home draw with Bournemouth on Saturday was only their 2nd clean sheet in 8 games. The Saints face an extremely tough looking run in with games against Arsenal, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool to come and they will want to avoid slipping too far down the Premier League table to ruin all of their early good work this season.
Sam Allardyce has moulded Crystal Palace into a cohesive unit over the past month and the Eagles are flying with 4 wins on the bounce. Their latest win came at league leaders Chelsea, the 2-1 score ensuring just a 2nd league defeat at home for Blues under Antonio Conte.
Crystal Palace recorded a resounding 3-0 win over Southampton at Selhurst Park the last time the sides met before Christmas with Cristian Benteke helping himself to a brace. Southampton’s enigmatic Italian striker Manolo Gabbiadini faces a late fitness test for Wednesday’s game.
Southampton are an unpredictable package at present. On their day they can give anyone a game, but sometimes they struggle to find the right motivation against teams they should beat. Crystal Palace are in sparkling form and they will be bouncing into St. Mary’s after beating the champions elect Chelsea at the weekend. I can’t see Palace losing this one. A point a piece looks likely.
NetBet have odds of 15/4 for both teams to score and the match to finish as a draw – I like the look of that. They give Southampton odds of 20/27 which don’t really represent a fair reflection of the teams’ form going in to this one. They give Crystal Palace odds of 4/1 to win which are generous given the away sides recent performances. We think it’s best to stick to the draw here though. That’s all from our Southampton v Crystal Palace betting tips in a difficult fixture to find value.