BOSS Ralph Hasenhuttl admitted Saints weren't "good enough" in their opening day defeat at Selhurst Park, but insisted: "I can guarantee we will do better in the next weeks."

Saints fell to a 1-0 loss against Crystal Palace this afternoon in the opening weekend of the Premier League season.

Wilfried Zaha's early goal separated the sides, with Eagles goalkeeper Vicente Guaita pulling off three good stops to deny Nathan Redmond, Che Adams and Danny Ings.

Discussing his side's performance, Hasenhuttl said: "It’s a new season and I think we have seen that we are definitely yet at the same level. Pre-season was a different one.

"It was definitely not the easiest game today. We had a good start and then the first chance we concede a goal. After this it was tough.

"In the first half it was definitely not our best game because we were too slow, had a lot of possession, 70 per cent, a lot of passes but not really stressing the opponent.

"That was the reason why I changed it at half-time. We had more chances, three or four very good chances including the last minute for an equaliser, but in the end the goalkeeper made good saves and for us no point today."

Asked how much of a hindrance to preparations having players away on international duty last week proved to be, Hasenhuttl added: "When you have four weeks and for two of these four weeks the players are gone and then some are coming back injured, you have to go to the first game with two days preparing for this game, it is definitely not a perfect pre-season.

"The opponent had it a little bit easier because they had all their players here. I think they had one or two that were gone.

"But I don’t want to search for excuses. We haven’t been good enough today and we all know we can do it better and I can guarantee we will do it better in the next weeks."