The Eagles sit two points clear of Southampton with a game in hand, just a point off the top having played a game fewer than current leaders Charlton Athletic.
Just four points separate the top five, with Sunderland and Birmingham City the other two challengers at the top of the table.
Southampton will be looking to bounce back from defeat at home to Charlton last time out, with Palace hoping to produce a similar display to the one which earned them a three-goal victory away at Watford and a 3-2 win over Lewes.
With Charlton facing Sunderland in the same round of fixtures, meaning at least one is guaranteed to drop points, a positive result for either side would be a huge boost to their title ambitions.
What’s the story?
Southampton Women ushered in a new era in the summer of 2022, winning promotion to the Barclays Women’s Championship for the first time after defeating Wolverhampton Wanderers in the National League Play-off final.
Led by a footballing icon in Marieanne Spacey-Cale MBE, the Saints entered English football’s second-tier and performed admirably last season, finishing sixth in the table – a point and place behind Palace.
Smart recruitment over the summer – including that of former Palace players Chloe Peplow and Rianna Dean – and a decent start to this season, with six wins from their first 10 games, have only added to the sense of a brewing red and white revolution.
Southampton’s roots can be traced back to Saints Girls & Ladies, a local club affiliated with the men’s team in 1995 and absorbed in 2001, but whose funding was withdrawn after Southampton men were relegated from the top-flight for the first time in 27 years in 2005.
Recognising the need for a professional women’s team in the region, Southampton set about forming academy sides in 2016 and, a year later, a senior team under their current guise.
