Manager Russell Martin admitted Ryan Fraser has done everything possible to start for Southampton after his sensational performance in the 4-0 FA Cup home win over Walsall.
Fraser scored twice and set up another as Saints strolled into the fourth round and moved to a 19th game unbeaten in all competitions.
The Scotland international has been forced to wait for his chances after arriving on loan from Newcastle but with injuries to Kamaldeen Sulemana and Samuel Edozie, he got Martin’s attention at the right time.
Martin said: “He was really good, really brilliant. He has such an amazing attitude and is a good example for the young boys.
“He’s been great coming off the bench recently, now Sam Edozie’s got an injury so Ryan has put himself in the frame to play from the start.
“As long as he brings what he does all the time then he will be a big player of us.
“He maybe hasn’t started as many games as people may have thought or what he’d like but he’s been a huge player for us.
“He’s been frustrated but in the right way. We wouldn’t have signed him if he was a bad character. He is the Ryan I remember playing with.
“He’s a good guy who smiles a lot and knows everything about football, watches every game possible and is in such great shape.
“We had a chat and he understood his role, especially as the other guys have been brilliant. He said he’d do everything he could whilst in that role.
“Of course he wants to start games but now he’s accepted it and has shown what he can do when he’s come off the bench. Days like today will definitely help him.”
Fraser opened the scoring in the sixth minute when he cottoned onto Taylor Harwood-Bellis’ ball over the top.
Championship promotion hunters Saints had to wait until the second half to run riot as Fraser teed up Sekou Mara to swivel and finish.
Fraser then added his second with a sublime finish into the bottom corner before Che Adams showed his strength and finishing abilities to help Saints score four at home for the third time in their last four matches.
The Saddlers had three good chances of their own, with Tom Knowles twice going close and Isaac Hutchinson also forcing a save out of Joe Lumley.
Boss Mat Sadler said: “We were certainly in the game in the first 15 minutes of the second half.
“They are a fantastic team and I’m glad we don’t have to play them every week. We’ve seen Championship sides blown away by them so we were fully aware of the task at hand.
“I wanted my team to give a good account of themselves and they did. I wouldn’t have fancied a replay, though.
“We grew into the game and it was fantastic to see but we didn’t score when we needed to score.
“We had three really good chances and unfortunately we didn’t take any of those.
“We are such a united football club at the moment and that will be hugely powerful going into the next part of the season.
“We wanted to upset it and ideally we didn’t want to go behind so early in the game but the reaction to that was great.”
'I will keep fighting' - Ten Hag adamant he is the right manager for Man Utd
Erik ten Hag insists that he is the right man for the job at Manchester United despite their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace on Monday.
Michael Olise netted twice against a sorry United team at Selhurst Park, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also getting on the scoresheet.
It is the first time that Palace have done the double over the Red Devils in the Premier League, as United extended their winless run on the road to five games.
There has been a lot of speculation over Ten Hag’s future following a disappointing second campaign in charge, with just one year left on his contract.
Asked if he was the right manager for United, he told Sky Sports: "Absolutely. If the right players are there and available, we have a good squad, but are missing the whole backline – we had problems.
"I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far – I have to take responsibility for that. But I will find energy and prepare them for Sunday’s game.
"At the end of the day, I have to do it with the players who are available. All season, we have huge [injury] problems. Many times we have sorted it out. Today we didn’t."
United have struggled with injury problems all season, with Harry Maguire and club captain Bruno Fernandes joining the lengthy list of players missing against Palace.
Ten Hag highlighted the lack of defensive options at his disposal but did not make excuses for the poor performance, adding: "It’s clear and obvious – this is underperforming. It’s not good enough. We are very disappointed in this. Our fans were behind us all the way – we should have kept fighting like the fans did.
"There are always reasons. Everyone sees our backline, we have huge problems, but at the end of the day we have to deal with it – we should have done better than we did.
"We know [how damaging it could be], but we have nine points to play, so we have to fight for the nine points."
Man Utd thrashing a 'big statement' but Palace are not surprised, says Eze
Eberechi Eze says Crystal Palace's 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United is a "big statement" but insists there should be little surprise that it happened.
Micheal Olise scored twice as Palace ran riot against the sorry Red Devils at Selhurst Park on Monday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also got in on the act as Palace sealed their first league double over United.
Palace have now won four of their last five Premier League games, with Oliver Glasner having turned the tide in the past few weeks.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Eze said: "It says a lot, it's a big statement, but we're not surprised.
"We know what we're capable of, we know what we can do. The quality we've got in the dressing room is high – we don't see it as a surprise. We know what we came here to do today, it worked.
"You can see we’re creating chances, we're not worried about what's going on behind us. We're attacking, pressing, we're aggressive – we're going to continue to create chances for sure."
Also speaking to Sky Sports, Glasner said: "Congratulations to the team. I think in the first half, we didn't play as well as we could, but we were very efficient and scored very nice goals.
"At half-time, we made some adaptations, and the second half was much better. We created a lot of chances, scored some nice goals, and it's a great win.
"We know we have quality when we get our players in situations to score a goal.
"Good players, a good team spirit, but we must always stay humble. It's not so long ago we were struggling [in a relegation battle]. We are doing well, but we have a lot to improve."
This was Palace's biggest Premier League win since beating Leeds United 5-1 in April 2023, while it also marked their biggest on home soil in the competition since a 5-0 victory over Leicester City in April 2018.
Udinese 1-1 Napoli: Struggling Bianconeri grab last-gasp home draw
Napoli were held to a 1-1 draw at relegation-battling Udinese in Serie A on Monday after a stoppage-time goal by forward Isaac Success cancelled out a Victor Osimhen header.
Osimhen nodded home to give Napoli the lead in the 51st minute after Matteo Politano sent a lofted cross from the right into the middle of the box, and the Nigerian striker headed the ball in off the left post.
The Nigerian thought he doubled their advantage in the 80th minute, but his effort was ruled out for offside, before Success bundled in the leveller in stoppage time, netting from a Thomas Kristensen header.
Napoli moved up to eighth on 51 points from 35 games and are nine points behind both fifth-placed Atalanta and Roma, in sixth.
Data Debrief:
Osimhen is the third Napoli player to score in six matches in a row against a single team in Serie A in the three-points-for-a-win era, after Gonzalo Higuain against Lazio between 2013 and 2016 and Dries Mertens against Bologna between 2016 and 2019.
Despite fighting back to earn a point, Udinese have now failed to win three games under a new manager for the first time since August-September 2010 under Francesco Guidolin.
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