Ralph Hasenhuttl believes Saints showed how far they have come in a short space of time despite defeat to West Ham.

The Saints manager wasn’t happy that the performance level from his team dipped in the 2-1 loss.

But he appreciated the fact that his side might have got something from the game even though they weren’t at their best.

He said: “I don’t know (if it was a fair result) but it doesn’t interest me really if it was fair or not. I want to win if it’s unfair. That’s what I prefer than losing.

“I think we didn’t have out best evening, too much players didn’t perform like maybe they did last week or the week before.

“Although they didn’t we had a chance to win and that’s the good thing from this evening. We didn’t play our best game but we had a chance.

“I tell my players it’s the Premier League and if you make easy mistakes like we did with the second goal you don’t deserve to win.

“First goal outside the box and shoot you can also defend better.

“It was too easy how we gave our 1-0 lead away and that’s what we have to analyse and talk about in the next days.”

Saints’ poor record of dropping points from winning positions was extended as West Ham hit back from Nathan Redmond’s opener to grab the three points but Hasenhuttl was calm.

“I am not worried but I know in the Premier League not everything works in the right direction and it’s easy to lose games and that’s what we have seen,” he said.

“We also showed in the last week we can be the team that’s best power in the last 15 minutes like we did against Arsenal or Huddersfield.

“I am not afraid about what follows in the next weeks because we knew we had a tough fixture schedule but that’s the Premier League.

“It’s a long journey until the end of the season and to save us in this division will take all the games we have.

“I guarantee we work until the end very hard and then we will see what we will get.”

Saints now take on Man City at St Mary’s on Sunday.

Hasenhuttl, who confirmed Michael Obafemi will be out for a fortnight with a hamstring injury, may well make changes for the visit of the champions.

“It can be. We will have to look at the rotation as a possibility,” he admitted.

“It’s a shame that Obafemi is out injured because I need him very much.

“Pierre comes back and we missed him at moments because he was very important the last two games.

“We have a few injuries but that’s normal at this part of the season.

“First analyse what happened and then look forward.”