JAMES Ward-Prowse believes Saturday’s performance at the Etihad Stadium has shown that the team’s commitment can’t be questioned.

The midfielder opened the scoring against Manchester City when he took advantage of an Ederson error to lift the ball home from close range.

However, second half goals from Sergio Aguero and Kyle Walker ended Saints’ hopes of leaving with a point in the bag.

Speaking to the Southampton FC website, Ward-Prowse said: “You can’t question the lads’ commitment.

“Obviously, I’m with the team every day and I know them very, very well – not only as footballers but as people.

“We came here on Tuesday and we came here on Saturday, and we’ve made stepping stones, so for people to question our commitment, you could see that’s definitely not the case.

“That’s the most important thing for us – for us to come off the pitch, regardless of the result and performance, to show the character and belief in what we’re trying to do.

“You could see that right through the game, and also the quality we’ve got going forward at times. All in all, it was a positive performance.”

Although Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side can take positives from their performance on Saturday, it won’t count for anything if they fail to get a positive result against Everton this weekend.

The Toffees are currently three points above Saints in the Premier League table after the opening 11 games.

Even a win would leave Saints in the bottom three over the international break, but at least they’d be able to take confidence to Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium on 23 November.

Ward-Prowse believes it’s crucial that the St Mary’s outfit continue to match the levels they put in against City if they want to start climbing the table.
He added: “If we can do that against a strong Man City side, that’s the standard moving forward.

“That’s what the manager said – we’ve shown what we can do against a side like this, so going forward now, every team should have problems with us.

“We’re all out there together. It’s not just the team; it’s the team, the manager, the coaching staff, all the physios. Everyone’s together and striving in the same direction.

“We’ve got a good chance of progressing if we’re all doing that for each other.”