Roy Hodgson believes a win at Southampton will allow his Crystal Palace team to “breathe more easily” as they inch closer to Premier League safety.

Palace had been in shambles before Hodgson was enticed back to the club for a second stint after Patrick Vieira was fired.

When Hodgson returned, the Eagles were just three points clear of the bottom three, on a 12-match winless streak and without a win in 2023.

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Since his arrival, however, they have won two consecutive games, including a stunning 5-1 victory at Leeds, and have pulled six points clear of the bottom three.

“If we were to win at Southampton, which is no easy task and it’s much easier to talk about it than to actually do it, then there’s no doubt that would have a great effect on our confidence,” Hodgson said.

“It would take us up to 36 points and still give us seven games to get the extra points that we need, so it would be massive, but we’re going to have that in most of the games now going forward.

“From the platform of 33 points, I think with eight games to go there will be a lot of games where we’ll be saying ‘if we just win this next one then we might be able to breathe more easily’.

“But let’s get the games done first and let’s make sure that we keep going into the games with the right attitude, that we haven’t done the job until that day when, as the Americans put it, that fat lady sings, and we’re a long way off yet.”