Southampton triumphed 4-1 over Everton at St. Mary’s – in a match dubbed ‘must-win’ by fans and pundits alike – to ease pressure on manager Mauricio Pellegrino.
The Saints took the lead after just 18 minutes through Serbian Dusan Tadic when he was expertly found by Ryan Bertrand, before slotting in cooly past England’s Jordan Pickford.
But a familiar sight ensued for Saints fans as Gylfi Sigurdsson curled in a beautiful strike on the stroke of half-time, despite Southampton’s typical first-half dominance.
Charlie Austin, a divisive figure amongst Saints fans, started his first league game of the season – and will have been delighted to score his first goal of the term when Ryan Bertrand whipped in a great cross to the near post, where Austin beat Ashley Willams and Michael Keane, and found the back of the net with a powerful header.
Austin then doubled the lead minutes later when Tadic found himself in acres of space after Everton switched off, and floated a brilliant ball straight into the former QPR man, who made no mistake with his header.
The points were put beyond doubt on 87 minutes as Steven Davis picked the ball up from James Ward-Prowse on the edge of the box, and found the net brilliantly with a whipped shot.