So often this season it seems to have been two steps forward and one step back for Saints.

The last week or so encapsulates it perfectly.

Saints were under a bit of pressure coming into the game against Everton, but they turned it round with a win and a strong performance.

Then they pitched up at the Emirates Stadium and dismantled Arsenal to make it through to the semi-finals of the EFL Cup.

Suddenly there was a real sense of momentum behind Saints, which was just what they needed with a couple of winnable league matches ahead and, crucially, the final game decider in Group K of the Europa League against Hapoel Be’er Sheva.

But it has felt like every time Saints have raised hopes and expectations with a bright spell, they have just suddenly dipped out of nowhere.

Conversely, when any dip has started to look sustained, they have found a way to turn it around.

It has been a weird season, perhaps inevitable when you have so many matches in different competitions, but that makes it no less frustrating.

After the wins over Everton and Arsenal, only the sense it would be typical for this season would have led anybody to predict what Saints produced at Selhurst Park.

It was such a poor team showing.

Despite Fraser Forster’s high profile error, it would be unfair to single out one or two players for criticism when the majority of the Saints team were off the pace.

This was a performance with no intensity, no fizz, and, oddly, no real belief.

It produced a result - entirely deserved - which leaves Puel with another significant question.

Had Saints got something from this game then they could have gone for it against Be’er Sheva, fielded the strongest side available and tried to ensure progress in the Europa League.

But with one win in six in the top flight, Puel now has to have an eye on the visit of Middlesbrough to St Mary’s just a couple of days after the European tie.

For all that though, and the sense that all is not entirely right at Saints at the moment, in just a few days the club could be in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup, the knockout stages of the Europa League and midtable in the top flight.

Most fans would have gladly taken that before the start of the season, which is why it is strange that it doesn’t feel overwhelmingly joyous.

There was certainly nothing joyous about Saints’ display against Crystal Palace.

It was back to being without threat in attack, only this time with the uncharacteristic addition of some sloppy defending too.

The three goals they conceded were dreadful.

Given that Palace came into this game on the back of six defeats in a row and looked nervy, there was clearly a chance for Saints to get only a second away league win of the campaign.

That they didn’t, and ended up reflecting on what went so badly wrong, was not the confidence booster they needed ahead of the Be’er Sheva match.

The first half was a particularly dire affair all round, and it took until 33 minutes for the first moment of note in the game, which delivered the first Palace goal.

Neither side looked like creating anything, so it was no great surprise it came from a mistake.

It was a horrible moment for Forster, who went to clear first time left footed from Jose Fonte’s square back pass across the six yard box.

The ball hit the keeper’s standing foot and the upward bobble meant his left produced an airshot.

Christian Benteke had tracked it in and was as shocked as anybody to be presented with the chance to roll the ball into the empty net from a few yards out.

Saints really just needed to get into the break at one down, regroup and refocus, and come again.

But when they let in another goal three minutes later they had a mountain to climb.

Though it won’t get the focus that Forster’s error did, this goal was just as poor.

Saints allowed a badly hit low corner to be flicked on at the near post. There was a lack of any decisive action in the six yard box and it allowed James Tomkins to appear unmarked to have a simple close range finish.

Saints were a little better in the second half, but by then Palace were in survival mode.

Sofiane Boufal, Charlie Austin and Josh Sims all missed the target when they had a sight of goal, while Virgil van Dijk’s looping reaction header landed on the top of the crossbar before the half cleared rebound was lashed wide by Fonte.

The misery was complete five minutes from time as Saints froze as James McArthur fired in a shot from just outside the area that took a deflection.

Jason Puncheon reacted quickest to cut the ball back from the left by-line to allow Benteke, without a Saints player near him in the six yard box, another straightforward finish.

The strange thing was all logic said this should not have happened, and yet the way the season has gone for Saints it didn’t feel a complete shock.

Consistency is hard when there are so many games, and so much rotation, but Puel is still searching for far more of it.