Mauricio Pochettino insisted his first win as Saints manager was a victory for belief.

The new boss picked up a stunning first three points in his fourth game in charge as Saints gunned down Premier League champions Manchester City 3-1 at St Mary’s.

The match was a one sided affair that Saints truthfully won at a canter to give themselves breathing space above the bottom three and delight Pochettino.

He said: “Victory only comes if you believe you can get the victory.

“The most important thing here at Southampton is that everybody believes in our victories.

“We believed we could win and that’s the way we should go.

“We are all very happy – all the staff and everybody integrated into this club.

“I want to thank the supporters for the great support they gave. “The stadium was vibrating.

“The key is all the work we put into it and the work we put into all the matches.

“We saw it here and the result came for us.”

Pochettino had a game plan to stop City playing but not even he could have believed it would so effective.

“I have seen that we cut the connection between their lines and have not let them play,” he said.

“It (the result) has a great value. The team has deserved its victory.”

He added: “I'm very proud and very happy for the team, who deserved the victory.

“I'm very happy for all the people who work with Southampton and for all the people here at St Mary's today, it has been an incredible day.”

Saints now have a fortnight in which to prepare to take on Alan Pardew’s Newcastle side at St James’ Park.

Injured stars Luke Shaw and Gaston Ramirez could be in contention for the February 24 game after failing to recover in time to face City.