Southampton made an impressive return to form as goals from Nathan Redmond and Stuart Armstrong secured a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace
Ralph Hasenhuttl's side were on the receiving end of a as they surrendered a two-goal lead to lose 3-2, but he hailed this performance at Selhurst Park as their best away from home this season
Redmond's thunderous third Premier League goal of the season midway through the first half sent Saints on their way (22)
 Wilfried Zaha was then fortunate to escape a VAR red card for poking James Ward-Prowse in the face as the players left the field at half-time - but Armstrong consolidated the away side's advantage with his second goal in three games (48)
The result means Southampton have recorded five wins in their last seven Premier League games - including four successive away league victories and aided by a third clean sheet in six - as Hasenhuttl's side rise to ninth in the table, leapfrogging Palace in 11th spot
Palace claimed a  at the weekend, but they were lacklustre throughout this affair - failing to direct a single shot on target in a Premier League game for the second time this season
Hodgson admitted afterwards that his side felt the pinch of six first-team players missing, which played a role in his decision to name an unchanged side
 By contrast, Saints appeared determined to rectify their second-half collapse against Wolves, as Hasenhuttl's side recorded eight goal attempts during a dominant opening period
"It's not easy to win here, but the way we played today especially in possession was one of the best performances this season
 I'm very proud
 We were very brave," the Austrian admitted afterwards
Hasenhuttl had opted to rest top goal-scorer Danny Ings, but his side were dominating the ball and dampening the drum from the Homesdale Road end when Jairo Riedewald put in a robust challenge on Cedric which forced the Portuguese off after 21 minutes
It was just before then that the hosts missed a glorious opening against the run of play as Jannik Vestergaard dithered on the ball, allowing Jordan Ayew to set up Cenk Tosun, but the Turkey striker blazed glaringly over when through on goal, ruing the opportunity to mark the start of his loan move from Everton with goals in back-to-back matches
That was as good as it got for Hodgson's men, and the miss was brought into sharper focus two minutes later as Redmond fired the south-coast club ahead
 Jack Stephens brought the ball out from defence unopposed before spotting the darting run of Redmond, who shrugged off James McCarthy before arrowing his venomous shot beyond Vicente Guaita into the top corner
Saints were in the mood by now, and might have doubled their lead five minutes later as Ryan Bertrand's cross was met by Armstrong but his shot was tipped over this time by the Palace stopper
 There was no let-up as Shane Long sent a near-post header into the side-netting, drawing further murmurs of discontent from the home supporters
Hodgson will have read the riot act to his players at the break, and he was perhaps fortunate to still have 11 men for the restart as Zaha clashed with Ward-Prowse on the half-time whistle, with the Palace man poking the Saints midfielder in the face
Referee Andre Marriner missed the incident as a VAR review deemed that Zaha had not been guilty of violent conduct - but Southampton doubled Palace's troubles within three minutes of the second period as Redmond turned provider for Armstrong to lash beyond Guaita's from the edge of the box
Palace continued to struggle as after Bertrand's superb block to deny Riedewald from point-blank range, Shane Long was guilty of missing a glorious chance to extend Southampton's lead when put through by Michael Obafemi but he shot straight at Guaita
The writing was on the wall for the hosts when substitute Connor Wickham gave up two decent chances in the final 10 minutes, first losing his footing when slipped through by Max Meyer and then blazing over from the angle as Palace succumbed to a first league defeat since before Christmas
Crystal Palace boss : "Yes they did [look tired], but we can't use that as an excuse because we had the same rest period between the last game as the other teams in the league, so it's more a question where the same XI basically have had to fight their way through games
"When you throw tough games into the bargain, I think it caught up with us tonight
 I'm not thinking about the transfer window as much as I'm thinking about recovering six players
"That's a lot to be missing from your squad, and I'm not talking about six who never play
 We're talking about Christian Benteke, Andros Townsend, Jeffrey Schlupp, Mamadou Sakho, Patrick van Aanholt and Luka Milivojevic
 All these guys normally play in the team
"Southampton boss : "We only made one mistake in the first half from Jannik, but the rest of our plan, building up from behind and using the right spaces, it was very hard for Palace to defend
 We were very flexible
 It was not a coincidence that we had a lot of chances, the only concern from the first half was that we only scored once
"We were more concentrated in the second period, and we stuck to the game plan
 After the manner in which we lost the last game [against Wolves] we wanted to show that we can do it better
"Hasenhuttl admitted he would struggle to name a stand-out performer on the night, but highlighted the displays of his two No 10s, with Armstrong and Redmond coming off the wings throughout to cause Palace multiple problems
When on song, Redmond is a joy to watch and one of Saints' most potent attacking weapons
 Here, he proved far too good for Martin Kelly, who was eventually replaced
His goal was the first Palace have conceded from outside of the box this season, and they duly doubled that tally in the second period thanks to Redmond's selfless vision in spotting Armstrong in a better position to score
It was one of four key passes the 25-year-old played during the contest, more than any other player
 Redmond scored and assisted in the same Premier League game for the third time ever and the first time since December 2018 against Huddersfield
Crystal Palace host Sheffield United at Selhurst Park on February 1; kick-off 3pm
Southampton are in FA Cup fourth round action this Saturday at 3pm as Tottenham visit St Mary's before Saints return to Premier League duty on February 1 away to Liverpool at the same kick-off time
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