Southampton vs. Crystal Palace – English Premier League, May 11, 2021

By the time these two meet on Tuesday, Southampton’s Premier League status could be safe for another year. Fulham plays on Monday and has to beat Burnley to stand a chance of staying up.

The Saints will likely prevail anyway, even though results have been fairly woeful since the start of the year. But with not much to play for, Palace might give the home side an easier ride than would have been expected earlier in the season.

Southampton should go into this game because it does need to win to stay up, even if other results make it less important. The home side has really struggled this year, and Crystal Palace could be in the mood to finish the season off in style.

The draw or away win bets look the more attractive here to me.

Southampton didn’t play too badly in the defeat to Liverpool at Anfield at the weekend. With the champions needing points to finish in the top four, an away win was always going to be unlikely, but the 2-0 scoreline showed that the Saints played their part in a competitive fixture.

It is the fourth game in a row that Southampton has not finished victorious.

A lot has gone wrong since then for Ralph Hasenhuttl and his team – and the season cannot finish soon enough for the south coast club.

Crystal Palace will be relatively happy seeing out the remaining four games of the campaign after ensuring its Premier League place with a win away at Sheffield United at the weekend. Roy Hodgson has created stability around the club in the last few months, and Palace has looked the better for it.

Whether he will be around next season is still to be decided. Many players are coming to the end of their contracts, so there may be a very different-looking Palace next season. For now, it can concentrate on a pressure-free midweek game against Southampton.

I don’t think that the home side will have anything to worry about as far as relegation goes, but Hasenhuttl will hope for a few more points before the end of the campaign to prove that he is the man to improve this team for next year.

There have been some truly horrible results for the Saints this season, and some narrow victories would certainly be welcome. I’m not sure he’ll get one here, though – a closely fought draw could be on the cards.