Crystal Palace v Southampton

Frank de Boer is gone, Roy Hodgson is in, as Palace became the first club to blink and change their leadership just four games into the season. We wrote in our pre-season preview that de Boer looks precisely the wrong man to lead the sort of personnel at Palace, and unfortunately for us, the powers that be seem to have spotted it early enough to damage our chances of collecting on the big prices about the Eagles going down.

Perhaps the best way to hedge that bet may come immediately, with the 2/1 quotes about Palace looking really appealing against a side who have failed to score in four of their opening five matches. Hodgson isn't a new age manager - he is a man who relies on hard work, extra effort and getting the last drop of effort out of his players. He'll also be hugely motivated to ensure he puts the damage of his England tenure to bed with a final hurrah at Palace. He's just the sort of leader the squad are likely to respond to. He "gets" them, and he will immediately be one of them.

Southampton, then Huddersfield represent a good opportunity to turn things around quickly before the challenges of trips to Man City, Man Utd and a home game against Chelsea.

The Saints couldn't put the killer touch in against Swansea first time out, ran out close 3-2 winners against a ten man West Ham (needing a 90th minute winner) and have gone on to draw successive blanks against Wolves, Huddersfield and Watford. It's about as bad as things could have started in fact, so back Palace at the 2/1 - this is an important game for them, and we might just see a reaction.

1pt Crystal Palace to beat Southampton at 2/1

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