Saints made it four wins in a row and did it in style as Claude Puel really started to make his mark on the way the side played.
For the first 40 minutes Saints were methodical, they were not exciting, they were not entertaining, but they looked solid and focused on doing the job needed.
Then with five minutes to the break and with West Ham for all their bluster unable to muster a decent effort on goal Saints went forward with intention, Ryan Bertran went forward pulled the ball back and there was Charlie Austin to fire home and give Saints a deserved lead if not on possession in attack, but the way they had cooly controlled the game.
In the second half apart from one 90 second spell where West Ham seemed to bombard our goal it was pretty much the one way traffic in terms of chances and when Tadic was played through by Austin he sidestepped the keeper sublimely and the lead was doubled.
Saints had plenty of chances to finish the game off in the last half hour, in truth they could have got six, but it was not poor finishing that cost them, but some inspired goalkeeping from Adrian and last ditch defending that kept West Ham in with a shout till injury time when Ward Prowse stroked home the third, by then the home fans had give up hope and most had left with virtually more Saints fans in the ground.
This was clinical by Saints, as I said not entertaining, but nor where Liverpool in the 80's, but a well drilled performance that made a mockery of those who said that the system was flawed and we lacked firepower, this was a team where they all knew there jobs and did what was asked.
The full backs were key to the task in hand, both Bertrand and Soares were superb, defensively they were tight, but going forward they destroyes the Hammers time and time again.
Claude Puel again picked the right team and made the right substitutions at the right time, those that said he was tactically naive and that the players could not play the season are now eating their words, yes it is still early days, but there is enough to suggest that this squad could achieve more than last season, especially when you take into account that it was a team missing Jay Rodriguez and new signing Sofiane Boufal.
It was a truly team performance though, no man played badly and no man could really be singled out as a clear man of the match, it was just methodical as the stats showed with West ham only having one shot on target out of 13 whilst Saints had 9 out of 18.
Things are looking up again, but then again it was always going to be about a little patience.