Saints had a convincing win over Fulham and soared into the top three albeit only for a day but Saints fans basked in the glory of one of our best starts to a season in the last 30 years.
Mauricio Pochettino once again opted to only include one out of Lambert/Osvaldo, reports said that the Italian had picked up a knock in training and certainly he didn't appear on the bench, but Rickie Lambert responded to being dropped for the game at Old Trafford with a stunning display.
Fact of the matter is by reverting to using only one forward as such we looked a much better balanced side and dominated Fulham from start to finish, the first half display was certainly the best of the season and indeed you would have to go back to over a decade since you would have seen the team play this well in the top flight.
Lambert rose to the challenge magnificently, but then again who would have doubted that he would, over the past few seasons whatever challenge had faced him he has met full on and triumphed, whether it be those who doubted his ability to step up to the Championship, the Premiership or to play for England, now he faces a fight for his place and after this showing Osvaldo will have to step up a gear or two if he wants to oust Lambert again.
Reverting to more the formation of late last season clearly suited us, Jay Rodriguez has always combined well with Lambert and the balance was there for all to see as Saints ripped the Cottagers apart, both goals were a Lambert/Rodriguez combination with firstly Jay Rod flicking on a corner for SRL to head home at the far post in the style we have grown accustomed to and then J Rod getting in on the act and scoring another header from a similar position from Lamberts headed ball back across goal.
It could have been so much more though, Lambert himself hit a post, several good saves from the keeper and a spectacular scissors kick from Rodriguez going just wide of the post late on.
But as much as the first half was scintillating, the second was functional, in the past Saints teams were often caught with sucker punches attempting to hit third goals, now though with the game effectively won in the first half, the second half saw Saints put in a workmanlike display which was not based on the blitzkrieg of the first but concentrated on keeping the ball and not letting Fulham get back into the game, we still had our chances but you could see the tempo had changed.
It hard to pick an exact man of the match, there were probably three candidates, Lambert, Lallana and Rodriguez, but they were not alone, Wanyama worked hard to get the ball back when not in possession and Jamie Ward Prowse offers accuracy from dead balls not seen very often since the retirement of Le God, making any dead ball situation a tricky time for the opposition.
At the back we were tight meaning that Boruc didn't have a shot to save, however don't underestimate the Polish keeper's ability to command his area and that meant that Fulham never got the chance to turn the screws on us when they did get the ball into our box.
The worst thing I can say about the game was that it was a pity that we didn't score more, but as mentioned the pleasing thing was this was a controlled win and that meant all out attack in the second half was not on the agenda.
I questioned Saints ability to see off some of the lower half teams in the preview, I have to say that although I haven't felt the balance was quite right in previous games, on Saturday it was spot on, perhaps for the first time since the opening day we played to our proper system rather than shoe horning players into certain positions and we reaped the benefit, creating plenty of chances from open play as well as from dead balls, we looked comfortable in all areas.
Saints are now being called the surprise package of the season and after nine games we cant be said to be a fluke, we just have to keep gaining points and looking to put pressure on others to catch us now.