Mauricio Pochettino believes his front three have increased their chances of World Cup selection after firing Saints to a 3-0 win over Fulham.

Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez were all on target at Craven Cottage with England boss Roy Hodgson in attendance.

The Saints fans made their feelings clear as they chanted for the trio to be included for the trip to Brazil and Pochettino said: “If Roy Hodgson was in attendance at the game against Yeovil, Arsenal and Fulham he would have seen those three games live and in these three games our strikers scoring goals.

“It was very important that the three strikers got goals and got on the scoresheet and that’s always going to increase their chances of making it to Brazil so that was important for them.”

It was a big win for Saints and Pochettino reflected: “I think in the first half we were a bit mistaken about our set up.

“We knew Fulham were going to be defending deep and would be wanting to close down the spaces for us and that they were going to be trying to go on the counter attack.

“In the second half we corrected certain positions such as Rickie, Adam and Jay’s positions on the pitch and allowed us to get the goal that opened up the game for us and control the game overall.”