Saints travel to Selhurst Park on Boxing Day hoping to make it two wins in a row and push back into the top four.

Although they will be without ex Palace defender Jose Fonte who will miss this game through suspension, Saints will travel to South London with confidence.

Firstly the confidence of knowing how well they played in an emphatic win over Everton at the weekend, secondly the confidence in knowing that they have back key players in Victor Wanyama, Tadic and Morgan Schneiderlin and thirdly the confidence in knowing that several of the youth team players have stepped up to the plate and can do a job if called upon.

But Ronald Koeman firstly has to decide what players to use and which formation to use, I think selection will be easy as will formation in that with Fonte out he will probably revert back to his preferred line up.

If he does that then I think it will be a case of Wanyama coming in for Fonte and Schneiderlin in for Harrison Reed, this will be harsh on the youngster but he is on a learning curve and as well as he played on Saturday he is not yet quite up to the standard that either Wanyama or Morgan have played to this season, they therefore have to come straight back in.

The real big decision will be Tadic, if Koeman goes back to his usual line up then we need two wide players, Long can of course drop back on one side, but if we play a midfield trio of Schneiderlin, Wanyama & Davis who to be blunt are the first choice three, then does Koeman drop Jamie Ward Prowse for Tadic.

Ths would be harsh as JWP has played well in the games since he returned from injury, but it could be the case in that there are a lot of games coming up and JWP will probably not have the core match fitness for all of them yet.

So I think we will revert to that tried and trusted formation, although we could mix and match a little and keep last weeks 3-5-2 formation, Koeman could do this by slotting Wanyama into the back three, although for me that might be putting too many square pegs in round holes , however it worked very well for Saints and i would hope to see it employed again at some time in the future.

Palace for their part will not want to end Boxing Day in the bottom three, after a mini revival they have only picked up 2 points from the last four games and although one of those games was the weekend's 3-0 defeat at Man City so expected, so they will be glad to get it out of the way, they know that a win for Burnley or Hull could push them back into the relegation zone if they fail to beat Saints.

The key for Saints though is as i said at the beginning of this article, "Confidence" with respect to Palace we have to be looking to go to places like Selhurst Park and win if we are to keep up our own hopes for this season, we certainly have the squad to do it and I feel the confidence is now back in a way that it had been lacking since we beat Leicester six weeks ago.

But perhaps as always the real key is options off of the bench, this is the difference come the final league table, the sides who have options are the ones that surge forward in the second half of the season, over recent weeks its often seemed that Saints bench is virtually anyone we could put on it, that as now changed slightly with players back from injury and the emergence of several youngsters as genuine first team contenders who can do a job and it will improve further in the New year, but for now we have to use what we have and on Boxing Day we will have options and that could be the difference between the two sides.

What we need to do now is what we did in the first third of the season, keep it tight at the back, cut out errors and then impose ourselves on our opponents, we are now in a position to do that more than at any other time in the past six games, time for a surge forward.

Photo: Action Images

perazi added 10:17 - Dec 24 Nick, the one part of your preview I disagree with is your claim JWP has played well in the last two matches. Although his corners and free kicks have been good, the rest of his game is bog ordinary. It has to be Tadic coming back in.
0

SaintNick added 10:56 - Dec 24 Fair comments perazi, I think JWP has played his part since coming back, perhaps his game has been ordinary but perhaps that is what he have needed a bi bit of back to basics, you also have to allow for how long he has been out and then suddenly having to come into a side which is in a crisis
0

aceofthebase added 12:07 - Dec 24 It's JWPs corners and free kicks that creates the goals and it's goals that win matches. Tadic has been very ordinary for the last couple of months (since the arrival of Mane). he looks well out of form but perhaps this 'rest' will have revitalised him. I would have thought that Gardos would be the one to replace Fontes. Whatever the team or formation I think we should be aiming for three points against CP Merry Christmas to all good people on this planet

0

TimSaint added 19:06 - Dec 24 Wishing all fellow Saints fans and people connected with the club, a very happy Christmas and hopefully our 3 point presents will arrive on Boxing Day, the 28th and the 1st :-) All the best to the team and fans alike, as we push on into the new year and who knows, maybe with a couple of additions in January, we can push on to an all time high prem finish.
1

BoondockSaint added 02:07 - Dec 25 See my previous posts about Tadic having to make room for Mane. If it's not broke, don't fix it! Anyway, A Very Happy Christmas to all on this site, home to the most intelligent and civil supporters of Father Christmas' favorite club-it's no coincidence that he's known as Saint Nicholas and wears red and white! Not to mention we have our own Saint Nick, whose Naughty list has only one name (initials NC) and whose hard work we are all grateful for!

1

TeamCortese added 10:01 - Dec 25 Merry Christmas everyone! 3 points on Monday COYR!
0

ElSanto added 10:24 - Dec 25 Quick question: Will I be able to buy a ticket for this game at the stadium? I always buy off the website and it says they are no longer selling - not sold out. Would love to go to this game as I'm in London until the 27th.
0

davepid added 10:30 - Dec 25 The annoying thing of the last month was that we were close to getting something from at least villa, arsenal and man utd - up to 6 Pts I reckon. And Burnley we should have had another point . So if Forster had read that cross against man utd better, if he hadn't flapped at villa, if tony hadn't got injured at arsenal, if Fonte had kicked the back pass harder and if tadic could score spot kicks then we could be on 36 Pts, we would be in a winter wonderland and we would be the talk of the press. Instead ,the media smugly reports the upstarts' bubble has burst and we are back in our place. Think too we could have had Pts from Liverpool and Spurs away earlier in the season but for very poor finishing . So without too much effort we could be on 38 Pts . That's what is so frustrating as I sum up our half season. Happy Christmas Nick and all the regular posters.

1

Blogs 31 bloggers

Arsenal Polls