Saints haven’t had enough of those special moments this season. Approaching Saturday’s trip to West London, Saints had racked up just four Premier League wins all season while it had been 35 days since their most recent success away at Everton. But with a trademark swing of James Ward-Prowse’s right boot, Saints claimed a gigantic victory and the celebrations in front of the Stamford Bridge away end were merely a window into the scale of this win.
James Ward-Prowse said: “That’s what it’s all about. They work hard following us up and down the country. It’s not been a great season, we know that, and to give them those sort of moments… you see the joy and passion on their faces at the end. That’s what football’s all about, giving people that feeling and hopefully, we can give them that more consistently now.”
It’s a considerably different mood around the club now compared to last weekend when Wolves came from a goal down – with a man less – to beat Saints 2-1 and inspire a cacophony of boos at St Mary’s. The defeat marked the end of the disastrously brief Nathan Jones era at Southampton Football Club and after a week of rumours – most notably that Jesse Marsch was set to take over the vacant managerial role – it was Ruben Selles who led Saints to Chelsea.And it was Selles who was pushed to the front of the celebratory melee of Saints players and staff as Chelsea trudged off the pitch following the shock result.
James Ward Prowse added: “Huge win for us. It’s been a tough week, there’s been a lot of noise, a lot of chaos. And for us to get through that in the way that we did, I think speaks a lot about the group that we’ve got and the way that we’ve been managed this week, and we’ve come away with a huge three points. I think Ruben took over at a time of a bit of stress and he’s calmed everybody down and given us a familiar way of playing. So I’m incredibly pleased for him. He’s come in and shown a real passion for what he wants to do. I think there’s a lot of speculation around who’s going to take the job but he could only do what he did today and everybody wanted to play for him and give him a good chance.”
Despite the win, Saints remain bottom of the Premier League table and Ward-Prowse is under no illusion about the challenge in store for him and his team to beat the drop.
James Ward Prowse said: “It doesn’t matter who the manager is, we have to perform and give 100% no matter what. But today is a springboard, now it’s just a question of being consistent with it to give ourselves a good chance for the next few games. I think there are a lot of things out of our control and we can’t control everything. But Ruben has steadied that this week, given us a bit of calm, given us a bit of belief in how we go about things. And now it’s about doing it on a consistent basis and not getting too carried away with the win today. Yeah, it’s fantastic, but we forget about it by tomorrow and look forward to next week.”
Saints are back in action on Saturday when they head to Elland Road for another massive game in their season, facing Leeds United who sit just one place and one point ahead.
