Football – England – FA Cup 4th Round
Saturday 24th January 2015 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
It’s an all-Premier League encounter at St.Mary’s Stadium this Saturday in the FA Cup when Southampton take on Crystal Palace.
For the purposes of my cup tips this weekend, I’ll be looking at each team’s results overall, and not just league form. So, Southampton have gone eight matches unbeaten overall having progressed through to this round via a 1-1 home draw with Championship outfit Ipswich Town, but managed to sneak a 1-0 win at Portman Road in the replay.
Other recent wins include victories over Everton and Arsenal at home along with away wins at Manchester United and Newcastle United. Supplementing striker Pelle up front are the goalscoring midfielders Mane, Tadic and Ward-Prowse.
Visitors Crystal Palace have also strung together some decent results of late as they’re unbeaten in their last five; draws away at QPR and Aston Villa were then backed up with wins over Dover athletic 4-0 in the third round of the FA Cup along with wins over Tottenham and Burnley in the Premier League.
Away from home specifically, Crystal Palace have lost just once in their last seven which was an understandable 3-0 defeat at Manchester City but they’ve also held the likes of Swansea City and Tottenham to points in their own back-yard, so they have a good chance of at least taking Saints back to Selhurst Park for a replay.
Southampton with home advantage will get my vote though here in this one as they’ve been very strong on home turf of late – could be a narrow 1-0 win for the hosts.
Pick: Southampton straight win @ 1.65 bet365
