James McArthur has hailed teammate Christian Benteke following his fine performance against Southampton.

Benteke handed the Southampton defence a torrid time during Crystal Palace's 2-1 victory at the St. Mary's Stadium and following the game, McArthur hailed the Belgian international for his fine performance in leading the attack.

"It was one of those where I was talking to Andros Townsend about it, where if you miss it, it's a sitter, but at the same time you need to concentrate and get that good contact on it," said McArthur, speaking to the Croydon Advertiser.

"Christian did brilliantly for it. As soon as it came to Christian I thought the big man was going to win it, especially the second half when he won so much.

"When you have got that trust in a player like him, you know he's going to get up and win it in the air and so it was about trying to ghost into the box.

"It was hard for Christian in the first half as Luka (Milivojevic) and I were so deep, so we needed to take responsibility for that as well. But he was unplayable after that. They tried to win headers against him but they had no chance."