Southampton returned to the top four of the Premier League with a
comfortable 3-1 win at struggling Crystal Palace.
Sadio Mane marked his return to the Southampton starting-XI with a superb
performance at Selhurst Park on Boxing Day, as he opened the scoring with
an excellent early goal before turning provider for Ryan Bertrand to double the
visitors' lead early in the second-half.
Defender Toby Alderweireld, on loan from Atletico Madrid, then opened his
Premier League account with a towering header shortly after to seal all three
points for Ronald Koeman's men, despite a late Scott Dann consolation for the
hosts.
Southampton showed some of the swagger and quality that they produced
early in the season, which saw them rise as high as second in the table before
a slump of a draw and four losses from five games.
However, they got back on track with a 3-0 win over Everton in their previous
match and can now look forward to Sunday's visit of table-topping Chelsea
with a degree of confidence.
Meanwhile, Palace have won just one of their last 12 Premier League fixtures
and have fallen into the relegation zone courtesy of Hull City's win at
Sunderland.
Out-of-form Palace looked set for another difficult afternoon right from the off
as Koeman's team began on the front foot.
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