Captain Jose Fonte has hailed the return of Ryan Bertrand after injury

Bertrand, the left-back who has been missing with a knee injury, returned to manager Ronald Koeman’s starting XI for the first time this season in the 3-1 victory over Swansea on Saturday.

The former Chelsea man, who comes up against his former charges at Stamford Bridge this Saturday, was solid throughout and played a part in the move that resulted in Saints’ third goal by Sadio Mane.

Captain Fonte was pleased with the 26-year-old’s return, but also gave a nod to academy graduate Matt Targett’s efforts during Bertrand’s absence.

“It’s massive, he’s (Bertrand) massive for us,” he said. “Matty Targett did very well, but he’s still young, he’s still learning and Ryan gives us, obviously, more maturity and more experience.

“I think we saw that today, we looked comfortable with that back four, so it was a great day for us.”

Above: Ryan Bertrand and James Ward-Prowse in discussion during Saints' 3-1 win over Swansea.

Fonte admitted that he was “disappointed” to concede the penalty that gifted The Swans a late consolation goal through Gylfi Sigurdsson’s spot-kick.

“I lost my feet and I slide and when you go sliding in the box you run the risk of making a penalty,” he said.

“Unfortunately that’s what happened and I’m disappointed on that, but if you didn’t dive in and try to block he probably would have scored as well.”

Ultimately, though, the Portugal international was pleased to finally get a second win under their belts.

“Well, obviously, we needed that,” Fonte explained. “We was a little bit under pressure.

“We don’t want to be in the position we were starting this fixture in, so for us to get three points and three goals, obviously disappointed with the goal conceded – we always want to keep clean-sheets – but at the end of the day the most important thing was three points and moving up the table.”

Further to that, the 31-year-old believes that Saints have proved that they’re at a level above Garry Monk’s side and was pleased with the defensive performance.

“For us to get the better of them, it’s massive,” he said. “We showed that we were a league above them today.

“We were strong at the back, they only had shots from outside the box and if we can sort that out a little bit better, they wouldn’t create anything.

“We were pleased with the performance, we looked strong and we looked dangerous as well going forward – we got three goals.”