Mauricio Pellegrino apologised to Saints fans after his side were humbled 4-1 by former manager Claude Puel’s Leicester.

Puel’s first return to St Mary’s since his sacking at the end of last season could hardly have produced a worse night for Saints.

Pellegrino’s men were awful, and were deservedly well beaten by the Foxes.

The Saints manager pulled no punches and said sorry to the club’s supporters, who were booing their team during the first half.

He said: “My feeling is obviously that we are disappointed because we show completely different face from the other day.

“Obviously this performance surprised everybody because it is not about tactics or technical problems, we were really bad from the beginning until the end.

“When you have got those days the best thing is to try to go to the next page and prepare the game for Saturday and react to show another face and take responsibility.

“This is our job and I have to say sorry to our fans.

“You can lose games but not in this way.”

When asked what went wrong, Pellegrino replied: “Everything.”

Pellegrino made four changes for the game, but was adamant it was not his team selection that was to blame for the heavy loss.

“For me it is not a question of tactical or technical problems,” he insisted.

“We were far away from them, we leave space between midfielders and defenders.

“When you have got one night like this when everything is wrong don’t talk too much about football.”

Worrying for Pellegrino, if his theory is correct, is the attitude of his players.

The performance came seemingly out of nowhere, just a few days after Saints had put in a strong display in the 1-1 draw at home to Arsenal.

Equally as troubling is the position Saints now find themselves in in the Premier League table.

They now have just a four point cushion to the bottom three, but with away games at Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United as three of their next four matches.

Saints’ players will certainly need to react strongly.

“I think we couldn’t have an answer to play at this level and sometimes you have a bad moment a bad night like today,” reflected Pellegrino. “At this level the opponent kills you.”