Crystal Palace 1-0 Southampton - 6 Things We Learned

6. The Wickham Man

There's been much debate about the giant centre forward since his arrival from Sunderland in August and, while he is yet to find his scoring touch for the South Londoners, his last three performances have been exceptional. Palace fans love the flair and the skills that Wilfried Zaha, Yohan Cabaye and Yannick Bolasie bring, but they also appreciate hard work. Connor Wickham can be proud of the shift he put in. Throughout the 90 minutes he pressured, harried, held the ball up, worked the channels and came very close to scoring on more than one occasion - surely his first Palace goal is just around the corner. It has to be. If there was one criticism I could find of the young striker, it's that he can appear quite static in the box. He doesn't yet seem to have that knack of finding half a yard of space in a crowded area that former Palace favourite Glenn Murray has, but I'm positive that will come with games and with confidence. Southampton's three centre-backs; Maya Yoshida, Virgil van Dijk and former Palace man Jose Fonte; will certainly be sore this morning after their bruising encounter with Wickham. They would have been dismayed that Alan Pardew waited until the 92nd minute to bring him off.