Nigel Adkins believes the performances of Maya Yoshida and Gaston Ramirez gives Saints plenty of hope for the future despite a 6-1 beating at Arsenal.

The new signings only joined up with their teammates for the first time at the end of last week after international games in Japan and Uruguay respectively.

Yoshida was pressed into a first-half appearance at the Emirates Stadium after Jos Hooiveld went off with a calf injury while Ramirez replaced Steven Davis at half time.

Adkins was pleased with what he saw and excited about the prospect of fielding them once they have had to recover from their travels and settle into life at the club.

He said: “We lost Jos Hooiveld after a period of time with a calf injury and Maya has only had one training session with us having just come back from Japan and so he was thrown right in at the deep end.

“I must say I thought he did ever so well as he grew into the game but it’s not easy because he’s got to get to know his teammates.

“The positive side of it is that we brought Gaston Ramirez in who trained with us for the first time on Friday night having been in Uruguay and you can just see what a quality football player he is going to be for us at Southampton so we are pleased about that.

“If anything we have had the addition of a few more players, we have a good week’s training lined up where we can get the group together in preparation for the next game and that’s where we’ve got to start now looking to pick up the points at home at St Mary’s.

“The crowd was superb again, singing the whole way through, the crowd was superb at St Mary’s and then again here and although the scoreline wasn’t what we wanted when you saw some of the play in the second half we actually did keep good possession of the football but the scoreline is beyond you and it is about winning.”

Hooiveld had been touch and go for the game after struggling with calf for a few days but was declared fit to play.

However, on this occasion it didn’t hold up and Saints now face an anxious wait to see how serious the problem is.

“We will have to see,” said a rueful Adkins.

“It is a calf injury and he couldn’t continue, he had to come off, so we will assess that one.

“Maya was thrown straight in at the deep end not really knowing any of the players and I must say he grew in confidence as the second half went on.”