MAURICIO Pellegrino believes Saints' draw with Arsenal proves his faith in his squad is well placed.

The Saints boss made four changes for the visit of the Gunners, including giving Jack Stephens a first start in three months in an unfamiliar right back position.

It paid off as Saints were only denied victory by Olivier Giroud's late equaliser.

It was the competitiveness of his squad as much as the performance that pleased Pellegrino.

He said: "I think it was a good game, I think we compete well.

"We were intelligent from the beginning until the end.

"We concede at the end but we know against this side, with this quality, in one action everything can change.

"I think we didn’t control the ball but I think we controlled the game because we created more clear chances than them and against Arsenal it is never easy.

"The most important news is even when I change players for today, when I changed players the other day, and I got people ready for Wednesday, means the squad is competing well.

"Most of them I feel are ready to compete and this is the good news."

Saints were so close to beating the Gunners, set up by Charlie Austin's early strike.

"When you play against Arsenal or the biggest teams in the Premier League you have to be close to excellence to win this type of game," reflected Pellegrino.

"I feel that little by little we are growing and the team showed we are competitive and this is one of my goals in this club.

"It doesn’t matter the opponent because to be competitive is different to have a group of players with quality.

"We have got another possibility on Wednesday and hopefully we can continue in this way."

For Austin it was an impressive fourth goal in his last four games.

The striker’s form is helping Saints pick up a bit of form at an important stage of the season with the games coming thick and fast.

"Obviously the goal is something that completes the job for strikers, but also I have to be happy because in the action Dusan does a really nice pass and it is important to create possibilities to score," said Pellegrino.

"It’s not just a question to play with more strikers but we have to be patient, we have to be in the right way, the right position, to manage the ball a little bit more.

"We have five or six clear chances to score against Arsenal and this is something that is not easy."