What a difference a few days and a couple of wins makes, we started this week with things all doom and gloom and finished it on a high.
Saints gained their second comprehensive win of the week and in doing so pushed themselves into 10th place and only 5 points off of West Ham United in 5th ushering in a new mood of confidence for the rest of the season boosted by the pre match news that Charlie Austin had put pen to paper on a 4 1/2 year contract.
Surprisingly Ronald Koeman made a couple of changes to the line up, out went Clasie and Romeu the heart of the midfield against Watford and in came Wanyama & JWP.
West Brom fans pre match were adamant that there team would come to spoil, keep it tight and nick a goal, that is not surprising news given that Tony Pulis is the manager, however his game plan was thrown out of the window when James Ward Prowse opened the scoring in the first five minutes.
Ward Prowse has always been touted as a free kick specialist, but he had yet to produce for Saints, but his free kick was top drawer and former Saint Rickie Lambert sat on the Baggie's bench must have been reminded of his own days at St Mary's when he thrilled Saints fans with similar exploits. Ironically this was the first Saints goal direct from a free kick in the Premier League since SRL himself scored in February 2014.
JWP doubled his total on 35 minutes with a penalty after Matt Targett was fouled and the game was all but over, Targett himself almost scored when he had a shot cleared off the line.
Dusan Tadic repeated his substitute role on Wednesday by coming on and scoring the final goal, albeit this time the third and not second.
Once again this was a comprehensive performance and the team looked fired up and concentrated for the entire 90 minutes with Fraser Forster able to continue his comeback game without a single shot on target to have to deal with.
Key player was Steven Davis who once again was at the heart of everything both defensive and in attack, he was ably supported by Matt Targett who is in the side on merit and is gaining in confidence all the time, not only using the ball well but now surging forward into the box as he did to earn the penalty for the second.
Shane Long should also be mentioned, he led the line well and was at the heart of most of the attacking moves, putting a clever ball into the path of Targett for the penalty and flicking the ball on from a clearance in the move that ended with Dusan Tadic making the game completely safe.
Cedric Soares put in another performance that made him a contender for man of the match, he looks like he has now come to terms with the physical aspect of the Premier League and he gets forward with pace, I would say his performances this week have been as good a display as anything that Nathaniel Clyne produced for Saints, if Soares continues at this level then he will have put to bed the spectre of Clyne on his shoulder.
These four deserve special mention because they have not always been appreciated by the supporters for one reason or another, but all of the team did there job, in many respects this performance was no better than the one against Palace a week earlier, the difference is that we played for 90 minutes rather than making errors or lapses in concentration and that enabled us to keep a grip on the game and impose ourselves rather than as in too many games play catch up because we have given away too many silly goals.
So Saints can now go to Old Trafford with confidence, the squad is now stronger and better and the arrival of Charlie Austin will give Ronald Koeman even more options.
So what a difference a week makes, the mood amongst the supporters is now buoyant and the doom and gloom of last weekend seems a million miles away.