James Ward-Prowse says Southampton’s performance in defeat at Manchester City proves they are heading in the right direction. Ward-Prowse opened the scoring at the Etihad Stadium and Saints held the lead for nearly an hour before Sergio Aguero levelled matters with 20 minutes to play.
Kyle Walker’s late goal ensured the defending champions took all three points as Southampton left empty handed but Ward-Prowse felt there were plenty of positives to take from the game regardless.
Saints were thrashed 9-0 at home by Leicester in their last league outing and then went down 3-1 at City in the Carabao Cup.
Ward-Prowse says the manner of their display at City, with Saints pushing the defending champions all the way, proves the squad remain united and are heading in the right direction. “All in all, it was a positive performance,” the midfielder told the club website. “If we can do that against a strong Man City side, that’s the standard moving forward. That’s what the manager [Ralph Hasenhuttl] said – we’ve shown what we can do against a side like this, so going forward now, every team should have problems with us.”
Southampton sit in 18th spot and are three points adrift of safety after the latest round of fixtures. The pressure had been on boss Hasenhuttl after the big loss to the Foxes but that has now eased after a strong performance at City.
Saints host Everton, the side immediately above then, in the next round of Premier League games at St Mary’s and also face bottom club Watford before the end of the month.
Next month could be a key period for Southampton as they face relegation rivals Norwich City, Newcastle United and Aston Villa, as well as West Ham United, in a 17-day spell between December 4 and December 21.
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