This was meant to be the hardest game of the season, the free hit, the one we always get torn apart in, but from the very start there was an air of confidence about Saints, a desire and a determination to get the job done.
If we take a look at the starting line up of Saints it had cost a combined transfer fee of around £85 million, some £15 million less than Manchester City had paid for Jack Grealish in the summer, real evidence as to how much the gap has widened between the likes of City and most of the Premier League.
Ralph Hasenhuttl once again made a few changes to the side that raised a few eyebrows, out went Salisu, Djenepo and Peraud and in came Jan Bednarek for his first Premier League start of the season, Kyle Walker Peters at right back and Che Adams in a two man attack.
In the first 25 minutes Saints looked determined, but they were still getting caught at the back and didn't look disciplined.
With Jack Stephens coming off injured on 37 and Mohammed Salisu coming on, they looked better organised and although they had plenty of possession City rarely looked like scoring again.
Why Bednarek & Salisu haven't been paired together before this season is a mystery, but it is the best central defensive duo we have at the club at the moment. I'm not saying this from any other standpoint than both Mohammed Salisu & Jan Bednarek are better players than Jack Stephens as I'm sure some will tell me that Jack was brilliant last week,
I am glad to hear that, competition for places is good, having good options is good, but the reality is that you have to play your best players.
Watching Match of the day their highlights seemed to show a different game from the full 99 minutes including injury time in both halves I watched, no one could argue with the amount of possession City had, 64% in total, but a resolute Saints side defended from the front and made sure that they actually had less shots on target than Saints, only 1 as opposed to our 2.
The fact that they had 16 attempts on goal shows how little we actually allowed them and aside from a few chances that went begging for them in the first half hour, they rarely got a decent sight of goal.
We broke quickly and had our moments as MOTD showed in their analysis when they highlighted several good attacks we had that had not even featured in the highlights, but our problem was that too often we failed in the end product, we didn't get a shot away or failed to play the right ball.
But the game hinged on two decisions, the first went against Saints, Nathan Redmond won the ball from Kyle Walker Peters and Adam Armstrong was put through, it was a clear penalty, the ball wasn't played by Kyle Walker and he not only bundled Armstrong over with his arm to the neck but went over him in a tackle.
It was surely as clear a penalty as I have seen, again MOTD agreed, but VAR felt otherwise, I cannot think why, Armstrong was bundled over without the ball being played, in any other part of the pitch it would be a foul, we had players booked for less by the ref.
But there would be more controversy, City looked to have scored in injury time, Allex McCarthy had made a wonder save to keep the initial header out, but he could do nothing with the loose ball and Raheem Sterling forced it home.
It took a good 2 1/2 minutes for VAR to make it's decision and from a technical point of view it was the right one, Sterling's boot was definitely offside, Saints were reprieved, but this was exactly the type of decision that makes VAR so controversial, why did they take so long to come to their verdict, it should have taken no more than 30 seconds to decide.
But come the final whistle the result was perhaps the right one, Saints certainly didn't deserve to lose and we were good value for the point, although we had to chase the ball for long periods, we were not swamped and we ran our socks off to make sure that City's possession rarely turned to actual pressure and chances on goal.
But we never parked the bus either, we had an attacking line up, we had our chances and went quickly at the break, Che Adams had very similar chance in the second half as Broja had against West Ham, a good run and a low shot that in this case went a foot wide of the post, City rarely had anything as close.
Saints have come through a tough opening 5 fixtures, four against teams that have started the season in the top 7, in the corresponding fixtures last season we only got 1 point, this season we have got 4.
Of course we have yet to win a game, but we have made a solid start against teams Newcastle aside who have made decent starts, we have a squad now that has depth, that Ralph Hasenhuttl can work with and pick teams to suit the opposition, unlike for large parts of last season where he had a job putting out XI experienced players let alone being able to make tactical changes.
But all of our hard work will go to waste if we don't get that win on the table and there is no better time to do that than against Wolves next weekend, if we beat them we move up the table and start to create a gap between ourselves and the bottom three, defeat will mean we will be looking over our shoulders.
But we can look forward with confidence now, we have a squad rather than a team, we have a manager who has taken us through a difficult couple of years where we have been hampered by having so much dead wood on the wage bill and having to run with a small squad on a shoestring.
We have showed at times we can challenge for the top 10, no more so than the first half of last season, now we have to prove that we can be more consistent.
At Manchester City not one single player had a bad game, some didn't have as good a game as they can do, but they made up for it with effort and workrate to get a point at the Etihad that few will get and it should be remembered that both Norwich and Arsenal both got beaten 5-0 in City's other 2 Premier League games this season and Red Bull Leipzig shipped 6 in midweek.
Slowly but surely we are now moving forward and this season perhaps won't bring trophies, but it will see us compete, we are not there yet, but we are a lot closer than we were a year ago.