Southampton denied again as Eberechi Eze seals Crystal Palace’s comeback win | Premier League

When Aaron Ramsdale swapped warming the bench at Arsenal for a relegation battle with Southampton, even the England goalkeeper could not have imagined it would be this bad. Another defeat – a 15th in 19 Premier League games – was especially hard to take after Tyler Dibling had given them a surprise lead to end a four-match wait to score a league goal and their first under the new manager, Ivan Juric.

But while Ramsdale was angered by the decision not to disallow Trevoh Chalobah’s equaliser for a push on the Southampton goalkeeper, it was only down to a string of fine saves that the scoreline was respectable as Palace secured a second home victory of the campaign thanks to Eberechi Eze’s brilliant finish. That leaves Oliver Glasner’s side looking much more comfortable after their slow start to the season – while surpassing Derby’s Premier League record low points tally of 11 may be the limit to Juric’s ambitions.

While Southampton’s defensive issues under Russell Martin came to define their former manager’s reign, they have also struggled badly at the other end. Not since Joe Aribo’s goal in the 5-1 defeat by Chelsea at the start of this month had they scored in the Premier League.

In a bid to turn the tide Juric handed the giant striker Paul Onuachu his second consecutive start despite never having scored a league goal since joining almost two years ago and made three changes from the defeat by West Ham on Boxing Day, including a recall for Dibling. There was also a return to the bench for the Germany defender Armel Bella-Kotchap, who had found himself frozen out under Martin.

Palace’s issues at home have been a growing concern for Glasner despite their improved fortunes of late and he admitted to being unsure of what to expect from their opponents, as Chris Richards replaced the suspended captain, Marc Guéhi, at the back. The form of Ismaïla Sarr has been key to their recent revival and the Senegal forward was in the thick of things for the start, pinching the ball from Nathan Wood and setting up Eze to shoot straight at Ramsdale.

But the hosts were delivered a wake-up call when Kyle Walker-Peters made progress down the left flank. He picked out Adam Armstrong, whose pass was turned in by Dibling from close range to the visiting supporters’ delight. James Bree then stung the gloves of Dean Henderson after more good work from Walker-Peters as Southampton visibly grew in confidence.

A few murmurs of discontent were beginning to creep through among the home fans when Jefferson Lerma drew Ramsdale into action again with a shot from the edge of the box. The goalkeeper did well to divert Sarr’s cross behind but then came the turning point.

Ramsdale felt that he had been impeded by Jean-Philippe Mateta when the resulting corner was headed in by Chalobah. The referee Michael Salisbury and VAR saw it differently, although Ramsdale may have had a point.

He had to be alert to tip Sarr’s shot round the post before parrying Lerma’s acrobatic kick away to safety. Walker-Peters could count himself lucky that a goalbound shot from Daniel Muñoz came back off his heel as Palace sought to press home their dominance.

Eze has been a shadow of the player who earned a call-up to England’s Euro 2024 squad for much of the season and had once again been on the periphery of things during the first half. But there was no doubting the quality of his first-time strike that gave Palace the lead in the 52nd minute after Southampton failed to clear a corner to register his first league goal since the start of September.

A mazy dribble from Mateus Fernandes, which ended with Henderson springing into action, showed that the visitors still had a glimmer of hope. Yet it was Palace who came closest to extending their lead when Eze’s free kick deflected narrowly over and Ramsdale was at full stretch to prevent Jan Bednarek from diverting Sarr’s cross into his own net on another afternoon he and Southampton will want to forget.