Sam Allardyce’s first reaction after today’s victory over Hull was to tell the team ‘to do a Southampton!’

He said: “There were two things in the first half: there was fatigue from Tuesday night and we weren’t functioning well in that system. So we went back to a diamond and we started to expose Hull City’s defence.

“The first goal going in quickly after half-time really settled us. The quality of the next two finishes is what we’ve been looking for.

“We’ve only lost two games over the Christmas period – one was Arsenal and the other one was Chelsea.

“I’m hoping we can kick on like Southampton have done because they’ve put themselves back up there with an outstanding run of wins.”