The visitors started brightly and took a shock early lead through Tyler Dibling after an excellent run from Kyle Walker-Peters.

But Palace rallied well and got back on level terms before half-time with a Trevoh Chalobah header from a corner, despite Southampton’s complaints that goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale was impeded.

The home side took the lead through Eze as he struck a powerful effort past Ramsdale from just outside the penalty area and the hosts held on for all three points.

Oliver Glasner's men had made a poor start to the league this season, with a 1-0 defeat away to Nottingham Forest in October leaving them in the relegation zone.

Yet since then, Palace has lost just two of its next 11 matches, winning four of them, which has seen it move away from danger and towards mid-table.

Glasner was pleased to end 2024 on a high.

"I'm very pleased", he said after the match. "Everybody expected us against the bottom team at home, but these games are often the most difficult ones."

Glasner also had his say on Chalobah's equaliser, suggesting that if his goal had been disallowed, then many goals scored this season would have also been chalked off.

"All over Europe yes, but not in England. This is the Premier League. We were told about this at the start of the season and what I like is that it's always the same line," he said.

"If this goal would have been disallowed then many goals from many other teams would have been disallowed.

"Everybody uses the rules to the very edge. This is what we are doing, this is what Arsenal are doing, everybody is doing."

For Southampton, it ends the year bottom of the Premier League, having picked up just six points from its first 19 games of the season so far.

Only Sunderland in 2005-2006 (six) and Sheffield United in 2020-2021 (five) have had as few as six points at the halfway stage of a Premier League campaign.

It has also now gone 17 consecutive away top-flight games without a win for just the second time in its history, after a 19-game winless run between March 1985 and February 1986.

Boss Ante Juric, who has yet to win a game since taking over from Russell Martin, praised his players for their fighting spirit during a difficult, yet transitional, period at St Mary's.

"Against West Ham [United] we did really, really good. Today we did some things good and there were some things we could do better," Juric said.

"We have players who can compete. We are competing, and we have to be much better in the details.

"They are fighting every game. We have to believe there is no other option."

Juric, unsurprisingly, had an opposing view to Glasner when asked about the awarding of Chalobah's goal. "I think the first goal for me is a foul," he said.

"This goal changes the situation, and it's the second goal we have conceded from set-pieces.

"Yes [it was a foul on Aaron Ramsdale] it's really difficult for Ramsdale to do something if he has a player pushing him. I don't know what is in the rules, but for me it is a foul."