Mauricio Pochettino said Saints fans should be proud of the performance of their team at Sunderland after a difficult few days for the club.

A week which saw Saints in the headlines for the resignation of former executive chairman Nicola Cortese and the appointment of club owner Katharina Liebherr as the non-executive chairman ended with a game at Sunderland.

Saints put in a superb performance but a lack of incisiveness in the final third and a couple of slack moments at the back meant they let a two- goal lead slip to draw 2-2.

However, after all the talk of player revolts there was little evidence of anything other than a stirring display from Pochettino’s side.

“I am very happy with the performance. They showed they are great professionals and they had the right attitude,” said the Saints boss.

“I want to congratulate them as I have done in the past.

“I think all Southampton supporters should be very proud of their team because they played very well in light of what happened this week.”

Despite all that though Pochettino couldn’t hide his disappointment at only getting a draw from a game in which Saints should have won very handsomely indeed.

“I am quite disappointed with that point. I think we deserved to win the match.

“In the end we leave with one point and two injuries and we hope these injuries are not as bad as they seemed.

“I think there were many chances we created, maybe double than what Sunderland created.

“I think offensively we lacked aggressiveness and in the end we were superior to them but we not able to mark that in the final result.

“We were able to dominate the opposition and create many chances but overall in the future we need to work on our effectiveness. We need to be a lot more clinical.”