Ralph Hasenhüttl praised a brave performance from his Southampton side as they claimed a vital 3-2 victory over West Ham at London Stadium.
It was an emphatic start for Saints who took the lead through Moi Elyounoussi after just eight minutes of play to ensure they had the lead at the break.
Some impactful substitutions from David Moyes at half-time saw West Ham draw level shortly after the restart, but a James Ward-Prowse penalty meant Saints were in front once more.
With West Ham levelling the scores shortly after through Saïd Benrahma, it was Jan Bednarek that fired home for Saints to ensure all three points on the road.
“We’re really happy because I think we deserved three points today,” said the boss. “We had a fantastic start today; we were very motivated today to show we can do better at this ground.
“As we said, our record here wasn’t the best one in the past years, but we did the right things at the right moments today.
“We scored goals and defended in a little bit of a different way, but it worked. We are getting technically better and more flexible all the time which is good.
“We have dropped loads of points in the past. Sometimes you are dropping and sometimes you are winning, and this is football.
“I’m happy we have good starts because that gives you a good feeling. Today we have shown good answers for conceding goals and we never stop believing in what we’re doing and that’s absolutely important in our game.
“It will happen again, this is football. But today we have shown it can go a different way. I think the way we responded three times today was fantastic.”
Reflecting on that energetic start from his side, Hasenhüttl admitted it was a brave performance in East London.
“Immediately a very good start. I must say we had the right decision in how we wanted to play and when you’re brave, we can show some football.
“This was to see in the first 15-20 minutes. Afterwards we stopped for a little bit. It’s always the same when you’re in the lead and you think you can lose something, and you are not so brave anymore.
“It’s also easier when you’re higher up the table and you have a gap between you and the relegation zone. You can be more brave I think. I’m happy for the guys.
“[West Ham] had good subs at half-time with Antonio and you know with him comes more power physically up front. He’s always tough to defend. But today I think we had the right answers and can show that we can win here.”
Pausing for a moment to reflect on Saints’ current COVID situation, Hasenhüttl confirmed Nathan Tella, Jack Stephens and Lyanco are all currently isolating.
“It is, for every team at the moment, very tough. You have to be very flexible with all the players you have and it can go quick that you lose a few players and this is what happened."
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