Saints win at Crystal Palace convinced the travelling Saints supporters that the two latest signings might just turn out to be another couple of gems and Mauricio Pellegrino seems to agree.
The highlight of the win at Selhurst Park was the form of the two latest Saints signings Mario Lemina and Wesley Hoedt, both showed from their debuts that they were assured players but at Selhurst Park they stepped up a gear to enthuse Saints supporters that perhaps this team has suddenly put a couple of pieces of the jigsaw into place.
Wesley Hoedt looked cal and assured, dominant in the air, well times in the tackle, he also read the game well and could hit a pass both short and long range, perhaps a measure of his quality came into injury time when in an aerial challenge he did not just head the ball away allowing Palace the chance to get the ball back and create pressure but he knocked it down to his right to Ryan Bertrand to enable us to retain possession and stop Palace's momentum.
But as good as Hoedt was he was overshadowed by Mario Lemina who was strong mobile and able to run with the ball and get forward, quite simply this was one of the most assured games from one of our central midfielders that I can remember and it bodes well for the future.
Certainly Mauricio Pellegrino was happy with the latest two additions to the squad as was evidenced in his comments after the game..
"When you bring players into the side you hope all the best for them, If they are well the team will be well, and Mario, Wesley, the new players who came this summer, all of them will help us to be stronger as a team and today was a good performance from everybody."
The addition of Hoedt and Lemina will enable Pellegrino to start to impose his way of playing on the squad, with respect to those that they replaced just watching them both on Saturday made the Saints supporters realise that these were a step up in class and that their ability to win the ball and use it well will help the rest of the squa find their confdence.
Both took a lot of pressure off Saints as a defensive unit and enabled us to commit men forward on the attack in a way that we have not previously been able to do without worrying that we will get caught on the counter.
The only disappointent was that we failed to take full advantage of our new found ability to win the ball and get forward quickly, but that will come over time and Saturday's performance reminded me very much of Ronald Koeman's time at the club where it was about the ability to soak up attacks and hit swiftly and quickly.