Mauricio Pellegrino believes the past week has proved that Saints are progressing under his management.

Saints have beaten Everton at St Mary’s, lost narrowly at league leaders Manchester City and drawn at neighbours Bournemouth to collect four points in the space of a week.

The nature of the performances have pleased Pellegrino as much as the results, and the Saints boss feels things are picking up.

He said: “I think so because we play different games, in different moods, and always competing well in different circumstances.

“Our performance was really competitive and with character and reacting in difficult moments.

“We have to look forward and use this reaction to learn for the future to don’t make this mistake because in the Premier League every single detail is very important.”

Saints fell behind at Bournemouth, but bagged a point when Charlie Austin netted a second half equaliser, however, they couldn’t quite manage to find a goal to collect all three points.

“I think it was a really tight game from the beginning and until the end,” reflected Pellegrino.

“At the end of the first half I think after scoring the opponent was a little bit better than us, but our reaction after scoring in the second half was really positive.

“I think we created a lot of chances and also we deserved to score another goal, but the opponent too.

“It was a nice game because both teams show from the beginning until the end that we want to win the game and I think we improve a little bit our opposition on the pitch second half and our reaction I have to take this conclusion that it was the most important thing.”

He added: “I think both teams try to show our style and defend how we play, attacking and up and down all the time.

“The way that in the Premier League the people is really careful about not conceding yellow cards or red cards because the advantage is really important.

“It was intense but always with good intensity, positive intensity.”

For Austin it was three goals in his last two starts and Pellegrino smiled: “The confidence in one striker is something that is really difficult to train or to buy.

“You need some experience, you need to score goals to complete your job and when you have got some players in this moment it is really good news.”