Team News: Virgil van Dijk on Southampton bench

Virgil van Dijk has been named among the substitutes for Southampton's trip to Crystal Palace this afternoon.

The Saints skipper has not featured for the side since January due to an ankle injury and made an unsuccessful attempt to leave the club over the summer, submitting a transfer request just six weeks ago.

The Dutchman is passed fit to start on the bench today, however, as Mauricio Pellegrino makes four changes in an attempt to bounce back from the 2-0 home defeat to Watford last weekend.

Manolo Gabbiadini is relegated to the bench as Pellegrino opts to play Shane Long up front, with Dusan Tadic coming in to join Steven Davis and Nathan Redmond as attacking support.

James Ward-Prowse also drops out as Oriol Romeu and the recalled Mario Lemina take up holding roles in front of the back four.

Maya Yoshida is in for Jack Stephens as partner to Wesley Hoedt in the heart of defence, with Cedric Soares at right-back, Ryan Bertrand on the left and Fraser Forster in goal.

The Eagles, meanwhile, have a new manager in the shape of Roy Hodgson, who replaced Frank de Boer as boss on Tuesday after the club's dismal start to the season which has seen them lose all four games without scoring.

Hodgson has said that he was encouraged by what he saw in Palace's last game, a 1-0 defeat at Burnley, which saw the side dominate the encounter but lose out due to a third-minute goal from Chris Wood after a mistake from Lee Chung-yong.

Lee is duly dropped by Hodgson in just one change from that game against the Clarets, with a fit-again Ruben Loftus-Cheek coming back into the side alongside Andros Townsend and Christian Benteke up front.

James McArthur, Yohan Cabaye and Jason Puncheon continue in midfield, while there is an unchanged back four of Joel Ward, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Scott Dann and Jeffrey Schlupp ahead of Wayne Hennessey between the posts.

Crystal Palace: Hennessey; Ward, Fosu-Mensah, Dann, Schlupp; McArthur, Cabaye, Puncheon; Townsend, Loftus-Cheek, Benteke Subs: Speroni, Van Aanholt, Milivojevic, Tomkins, Lee, Sako, Kelly

Southampton: Forster; Soares, Yoshida, Hoedt, Bertrand; Romeu, Lemina; Tadic, Davis, Redmond; Long Subs: McCarthy, Stephens, Van Dijk, Targett, Ward-Prowse, Boufal, Gabbiadini

Keep up with all of the action from Selhurst Park this afternoon with Sports Mole's live text commentary here.