Vieira praises fans as Palace hold on for win against Southampton

Patrick Vieira praised the Selhurst Park fans after they roared the Eagles to three points against Southampton in what was their last home game before the World Cup break.

Palace held on to Edsonne Edouard’s first-half goal for a 1-0 win, but were on the ropes for large periods of the second period, and the Saints will consider themselves unlucky to leave with nothing.

But the Selhurst faithful stuck with their team – and boss Vieira sees it as no coincidence that 13 of the 16 points Palace have so far amassed in this season’s Premier League have come at home.

Speaking in the post-match press conference, and asked why his team have done so much better at home than away from Selhurst so far this term, Vieira said: “It’s the atmosphere – the fans, the payers feel really strong when we play at home,

“You see the noise again today and when we go through those difficult periods they help to get us to find the energy to get back on our feet and to give, and I think the supporters we have at home allow us to play well and to fight and to try to get a result.”

Che Adams and Stuart Armstrong had numerous chances to equalise for Southampton in the second half, after Palace had dominated the first period.

But Vieira said he was pleased with the performance. He added: “We needed that win and overall it was quite challenging in the second half, but we played well and I am really pleased with the win.

“It wasn’t perfect. There’s still parts of our game that we need to improve. We didn’t start well, in the first half as well, and we didn’t start the second half (in a solid way).”

Vieira also felt his side should have been more than one goal up at the break and said his team needed to be even more creative in the final third.

He said: “We put a lot of emphasis on how we need to improve, but the frustration is when you create so many chances and do not score.

“We need to improve our decision-making. We need to have more people around the box, we need to keep working all the time, because with the quality of the players we have we can combine better.”

On Eduard, Vieira said: “He is more involved with the whole game, getting involved in the last third and is capable of linking with the players around him and in the end he got rewarded.”

Palace next face West Ham at the London Stadium in the Premier League a week tomorrow.