Saints have set themselves a template for success which they must build upon ahead of facing Everton at St Mary’s.

Ralph Hasenhuttl was pleased with the efforts of his players at Manchester City even if they came home empty handed following a late 2-1 defeat.

It restored some pride following the 9-0 hammering to Leicester in their previous Premier League match, but they now have a big week ahead to prepare for taking on Everton.

Saints could really do with their first home win of the season to try and boost morale and get more points on the board ahead of the November international break.

Hasenhuttl said: “We see how we can defend, how we must be together and in the end it was from everybody a very very big workload and this is what we need.

“Sure the players are not happy when you work as hard and don’t get any points it’s not easy and not nice but the message is a clear one - we wanted to show a reaction, we did and this is the most important thing.

“We must take points and we could have taken but the equaliser was too early, a bit later and you get the counter attacks and chances.

“We believed in winning and everybody saw it and this was important for me and the team.”

Saints were boosted by the return from the bench of Moussa Djenepo who could start against Everton if he can get a solid week of training under his belt.

“I am happy he is back and everybody was immediately seeing how much this guy wants to help us and that he has quality,” admitted the Saints boss.

“I am happy he is back and that gives me hope for the future.

“Let’s see what the week brings. He is an option now and that was important for him to get the minutes.

“I am happy he is back and the other decisions with Pierre on the left did a fantastic job and with Jannik cleared 30 crosses during the whole game.

“I don’t want to speak about one person because they worked unbelievable and the strikers also with Ingsy and Reddie.

“It’s a pity but we look forward.”

Saints’ defensive abilities even had Pep Guardiola rattled and Hasenhuttl smiled: “I saw him being not so nice today and he was nervous he can lose this game and you see how much he wants to win the games. He is a fantastic manager and when he could feel he doesn’t have a solution what he can do you see how much he celebrates when he scores.

“It gives yourself the feeling you did a lot of things right when Pep has no solutions what to do and then you have done it well.

“We had normally nice contact and it was not that nice today but that’s ok.”