Crystal Palace 1-0 Southampton: Cabaye's Goal Gives Pardew Victory Over Former Team

So it is Crystal Palace, rather than Southampton, who go marching on. Even Southampton's historic hold over their hosts counted for little against Alan Pardew's increasingly buoyant side.

Palace had failed to defeat Southampton in 13 top-flight encounters, suffering straight losses in the last seven, but reputations and traditions matter little to Palace these days.

A first-half goal of sweet simplicity, created and executed by Palace's two stand-out performers, Yannick Bolasie and Yohan Cabaye, was enough to extend the South Londoners' impressive run to just one defeat in their last six outings.


It is hard to see Ronald Koeman's side having much of a grip on any of their opponents at present. Southampton have now not won in five matches and are slipping into the bottom half of the table.

Quick and eager Palace soon pushed Southampton back, with the visitors grateful to Paulo Gazzaniga, making a rare appearance in goal, for keeping their heads above water.

It was the Argentinian's first action of the campaign - and he had only two starts last season - but he made an instant impression replacing the injured Maarten Stekelenburg.

With his defence already wavering, Gazzaniga first tipped away a spectacularly curled effort from Bolasie before standing tall to block Cabaye's thunderous drive then beating down a header by Connor Wickham.

Ronald Koeman had made four changes to the side that so disappointed in a home draw with Aston Villa the previous week, and his revamped line-up and particularly its three-man central defensive unit, took time to settle.

Yet they were found hugely wanting when Palace moved in front seven minutes before half-time. Wilfried Zaha found Bolasie, who ripped past a floundering Jose Fonte. With other defenders failing to track back, Bolasie's low cross found an unmarked Cabaye who had the simplest of tasks to steer the ball past Gazzaniga.

Southampton struggled to carve out clearcut scoring chances after the break, although Oriol Romeu's 20-yarder at least tested Hennessey, so Koeman turned to substitute Graziano Pelle, still hampered by a knee injury, to change the game midway through the second half.

Instead, Palace should have doubled their lead 13 minutes from the end when Wilfried Zaha blazed over after being picked out by Bolasie's cross. Three minutes before time, Gazzaniga plunged low to keep out Wickham's low blast and within seconds had denied Bolasie once again.