Saints travel to Selhurst Park looking to clip the Eagles wings, the good news is that the injury list is starting to ease a little, however it remains to be seen whether it will be in time for the trip to South London.

Ralph Hasenhuttl has at least one player returning to the squad this week, Ainsley Maitland-Niles was unable to play against his parent club last weekend but will return to the squad, although he may find his way blocked by those who played put in a battling performance.

The Austrian also hinted in his pre match press conference on Thursday afternoon that Romeo Lavia might be ready for a return, followed by Armel Bella-Kotchap for the visit of Newcastle a week later.

But firstly Ralph has to consider what he does in the centre of the park, does he reinstate Maitland-Niles who was impressive in a holding midfield role at Bournemouth, or does he keep faith with Ibrahima Diallo who put in a decent showing against Arsenal.

He also has to decide whether to start with 4 at the back as he did last Sunday or stick with the 3 man defence supported by wing backs that saw us good value for a point against the Gunners.

Then the likes of Duje Caleta-Car & Lyanco where outstanding at the back, we need them to rise to the occasion again.

The good news though is that we have options, no longer are we reliant on youngsters who probably aren't going to make it at Premier League level to make up the numbers, we now have a squad that although a little short on experience is bustling with potential and with every game it will get better.

But potential is fine, it has to be turned into points, the little winless run was disappointing and even a couple of draws in that period would have made a hell of a difference to the table at present, but we can't change the past, but we can change the future and do so with a win at the Eagles.

If we do so then we could find ourselves nudging the top 10, the important thing though is to get a resonable amount of points on the board in the final 3 games before the World Cup break, go into it clear of the bottom 3 and ready to hit the ground running after Xmas when we will have returning players.

The team that drew with Arsenal was missing Livramento, Walker Peters, Lavia & Bella- Kotchap, how much better can we be and how much more consistent we can be with all of those players fit.

What we require at Palace is a performance as put in, in the last three games, a battling one where we refused to lie down and die and kept going to the end.

But as said, in the meantime we have to achieve things with who we have fit now, do that at Selhurst Park and we take a big step forward.

Photo: Action Images

Jesus_02 added 11:04 - Oct 28 We need to start at the back how we finished at Arsenal. Palace have a pretty decent forward line that needs to be kept quiet and IMO Lyanco could be the guy to wind up Zaha this time around. Moi was obviously great in the second half (where did that tackle come from!) but despite a great assist I think we need to have more of a goal threat against them. I would love to see more of Edozie, he can ping it and is great running at defenders. So would swap him in for either Moi or AA. AMN needs to start

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JoeEgg added 15:24 - Oct 28 The team that drew with Arsenal could and should have been 4 or more goals down by half time. The second half was excellent for us so why are we so inconsistent. Zaha always enjoys playing us and he must be stopped if we are to have any chance of success against Palace. How anyone can make any real sense of our performances this season is certainly beyond me. To ,play like we did second half against Arsenal with our top quartet out injured was extraordinary and highly commendable. However, scoring goals remains and always will, our Achilles heel. Therein rests Ralph's most difficult problem and I dont envy him especially with his job remaining precariously in the balance. So the Palace game is once again likely to need just one goal to decide the outcome.

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underweststand added 10:32 - Oct 29 Interesting interview with Patrick Viera (who in sympathizing with Ralph) highlighted the problems of successfully integrating new / young players into a Prem. squad and the reactions of those fans who expect "instant success" and criticise poor results. This game will be a good test for both sides as Palace (and even West Ham) are typical of " midtable London club " overshadowed by their "super-rich" neighbours and who themselves often get points against top sides, but rarely reach the top six spots. Saints raised their game v. Arsenal and it might be considered as some sort of "moral victory" to have got even one point off them. If we are to see any progress from Saints, this is the sort of game that we need to win convincingly to be able of moving up to the top half. A Palace game always generates memories in the rivalry between Zaha and JWP, but I think there maybe a new dimension, (in that if Ralph plays a similar line-up), it will be interesting to see how Wilfred Z. reacts if he comes up against Lyanco, who " took good care" of the Arsenal attackers last weekend. Once again, if we can maintain a tight defence, it will be for "someone " to find the net at the other end and get us all the points.

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WestSussexSaint added 10:51 - Oct 29 Lyanco will either be the hero of Selhurst keeping Zaha, Eze and co. quiet or be suckered into one too many challenges and be off inside the first half. I’m hoping for the former but there is no middle ground with the guy so it will be interesting!
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