Relieved Manuel Pellegrini believes that a game we needed to win was done well!

Commenting after the match: “It was a game that we needed to win and we did it well. First of all, we won a a game again and got three points more. We kept a clean sheet and with this kind of game the players recover the trust that they can do it.

“Against Arsenal we did it for 60 minutes, but you need to play for 95 minutes to be a consistent team and we did that today.

“We’ve played three of our last five games away – at Chelsea, Wolverhampton and now Southampton, so I think six points from those [away] games is okay.

“We are missing the points we lost at home against Crystal Palace, against Sheffield United, against Newcastle – that’s the difference between a good season and not.”

He was delighted with the contribution of Michail Antonio and Sebastien Haller, after the manager finally decided to play a 4-4-2 formation at St Mary’s.

He added: “Both of them worked very well attacking. We knew Southampton were a team who concede goals and both of them had different actions, one inside the box, and the other running into space.

“We had a few more chances too. Antonio is an important player as is so many of the players we are missing. We know he makes an impact. He can improve more and I think we will see him score more. Both of them played a complete game both defending and attacking.

“I think they did very well, both of them, and we scored one goal but had two or three more clear chances to score.

“Michail demonstrates every time he plays that he’s an important player. You must add Manuel Lanzini, Jack Wilshere, Lukasz Fabianski.

They are all important players, but we know Antonio makes an impact because of his power. Unfortunately for him he had the handball [which saw his goal disallowed seven minutes after half-time], but we played a complete game attacking and defending.”

ClaretandHugh says: All well and good and thank God for the win but had Pellegrini seen what was missing a long time ago – a twin spearhead – he and we would probably not be in the sort of mess we have been over recent weeks.  I have no doubt manager after manager from Roy Hodgson onwards has planned everything around our manager’s obsession with one up without any fear of him changing his mind in favour of the blindingly obvious. To learn that a player you bought for near;y €50 million – who always had a strike partner at his previous club – looks a better player in  a pair is pretty hard to fathom! As an insider said to me immediately after last night’s game: “He’s 66 – let’s hope he has finally learned something about 4-4-2.” Despite the win it was a line delivered heavy with sarcasm. Let’s hope next that he plays three at the back because we were fortunate to get away with the points in the end and adding Diop to the mix may well be the answer. As for Jack Wilshere being an important player? Hmm!