Southampton surrendered a first-half lead at Crystal Palace to lose 2-1, extending their winless run in the Premier League to nine games.
New Saints boss Ivan Juric, with back-to-back defeats in his first two games, faces a daunting task if he is to keep Southampton up – with no side in Premier League history avoiding relegation after taking only six points at the halfway stage in the season.
Southampton responded well to his pragmatic tweaks early on at Selhust Park, ending a run of four games in the league without a goal when Tyler Dibling opened the scoring after 14 minutes after a mazy run from Kyle Walker-Peters.
Tyler Dibling celebrates after giving Southampton the lead at Selhurst Park
Crystal Palace equalised from a corner after 31 minutes through Trevoh Chalobah’s header after surviving a VAR check, with Southampton feeling it should have been ruled out for a foul on Aaron Ramsdale by Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Trevoh Chalobah heads in Crystal Palace’s equaliser against Southampton
Palace completed the turnaround in the second half when Eberechi Eze scored his first goal since October from outside the box, helped by a deflection off Mateus Fernandes, to seal just their second home win of the season.
The visitors did not create enough to get back into the game and remain bottom, six points behind 19th-placed Ipswich, while Crystal Palace create a six-point cushion between themselves and the relegation zone.
Should VAR have disallowed Crystal Palace’s equaliser?
Southampton appealed to the officials to rule out Chalobah’s first-half header because Mateta had his arms on their goalkeeper Ramsdale when the delivery came in.
VAR had a look at the incident and upheld the on-field decision, which was to award the goal.
Southampton boss Juric and goalscorer Dibling both said after the game that they expected the goal to be overturned when the review was taking place.
As we have seen in recent weeks with two incidents involving Manchester United, who conceded directly from a corner against Tottenham and Wolves, the officials did not penalise the contact on the goalkeeper.
Palace boss Oliver Glasner said after the game that this is consistent with the messaging officials gave at the beginning of the season. “It is a foul all over Europe but not in the Premier League,” he said.
The damning Southampton stats
- Southampton have just six points after 19 Premier League games this season (W1 D3 L15) – at the halfway stage of a Premier League campaign, only Sunderland in 2005-06 (6) and Sheffield United in 2020-21 (5) have also ever had as few as six points.
- Southampton have conceded nine Premier League goals from corners this season, with only Wolves (10) conceding more.
- Southampton have gone 17 consecutive away top-flight games without a win for just the second time in their history, after a 19-game winless run between March 1985 and February 1986.
