Crystal Palace defender finds Premier League table far more satisfying as they crack top 10

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

Joachim Andersen has admitted the Premier League table makes for nicer viewing after their 1-0 home win over Southampton last weekend moved them into the top 10.

A first-half strike from Odsonne Edouard, pictured inset, secured all three points as the Eagles recorded their third clean sheet of the season.

“The top 10 is good for us, it sounds good,” defender Andersen told the South London Press.

“We want to be as high as possible. We are pleased with this win. Now we’re getting these wins where it’s a tight game.

“We had to improve from last season because we had some goals against us in the last minutes. This season it hasn’t really happened as much.

“We’ve been getting better at wasting a little bit of time, just being more mature and not wasting the ball so much.

“It’s about managing the game – what to do in certain situations. Those are the things we need to improve. Saturday was a good example on how to manage the game.”

Patrick Vieira had called it a “bad team performance” from his side last time out, a 3-0 loss at Everton, and had urged his side to react against Southampton.

A first-half performance full of attacking intent – with six corners and nine shots – highlighted Palace’s cutting edge as they went into the break ahead thanks to a 38th-minute Edouard strike.

“Our first half was brilliant, especially the beginning,” said Andersen. “We played with a lot of energy, a lot of creativity, so I was really pleased. We worked a lot in the week about getting our front players to combine to make runs in behind and get the ball in the box. We have so much quality out there and we just have to do it, because then we will cause a lot of teams problems.”

Wilfried Zaha, Eberechi Eze, Edouard and Michael Olise all tested the Saints defence.

“It’s really nice to have them in the team,” said Andersen. “I know how difficult it is to play against them because I train against them every day. They have so much talent.

“But we need to score more goals. They need to score more goals and get more assists, because they can do it. The gaffer demands a lot of them.”

Southampton came back strongly in the second half with Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita making a quartet of important saves.

“We knew they would come out and they are a team with a lot of energy,” said Andersen. “But it was our own mistakes. We didn’t come out that well in the first 10 or 15 minutes, so I blame it on ourselves. We gave away some balls in our build-up and didn’t win the second ball and duels. They got the better of us.

“I think it was [Che] Adams who had two chances and V [Guaita] did his job. He saved the ball and it’s pleasing to play in front of him because he brings a lot of security. We can trust him.

“I don’t care how we win, as long as we win.”

The Eagles face a wait of 57 days until their next match at Selhurst Park, against Fulham on Boxing Day, with a trip to West Ham on Sunday next on their schedule.

Andersen is likely to play for Denmark in the World Cup. They kick off their Group D campaign against Tunisia on November 22 before facing France, one of the tournament favourites, on November 26, and then Australia four days later.

“I enjoy every game we play here at Selhurst,” said Andersen. “I just take every game as the game we need to win and of course we are really good at home. We enjoy playing in front of these fans and they give us a lot of energy.

“You can see it on our records. We get more points at home but we need to do better away as well, so we’re trying to improve that.”

PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD