Perhaps the best and most satisfying victory at St Mary's since our return to the Premier League three years ago.

In the build up to the match I wrote on this site that the problem for Saints was that our senior players were not leading by example and that the likes of Jose Fonte and Victor Wanyama needed to stand up as leaders and lead by example.

That is exactly what they did as Saints cut out the errors and put in a magnificent performance that ranks as perhaps the best of the last three seasons since we returned to the Premier League.

Jose Fonte was a rock at the back and looked back to his old form, marking the occasion with a great headed goal, Wanyama was big, strong and motivated, something he has not looked in the past six weeks.

Ronald Koeman had also mentioned in his comments in the build up, that he was perhaps going to give a chance for those that were on the fringes and equally worthy of praise for this win were those who have not played as much this season.

Perhaps the changes were made because of injury, but Cuco Martina marked his return to the first team with a screamer of a goal that could well be goal of the season not just for Saints but indeed the entire Premier League.

Shane Long came in for Pelle and lead the line brilliantly, he caused Arsenal problems all night and fully deserved his two goals and it could have been three more with a little luck, he showed why he has been a vital member of Ronald Koeman's squad since his arrival, although some have been slow to recognise this.

But if the foundations were laid by these four, everyone else who go onto the pitch for Saints on the night chipped in.

Maarten Stekelenburg has attract criticism of late, but he was cool and composed and when Arsenal had perhaps their best chance when the ball rolled across the goal, not many perhaps realised that the Dutch keeper had made a brave block save to keep it out.

But there were also great cameo roles, Jordie Clasie ran and chased and perhaps his misfortune on 67 minutes to have to come off injured was the teams fortune in that Oriol Romeu came on at 2-0 and with fresh legs helped break up the game with Arsenal looking for the goal that would get them back into the game.

Put literally this was a team performance showing that all teams have bad runs, but good teams will come back and get the breaks that turn bad runs around, as a squad we had both the quality and the depth to move up the table again with the confidence back.

This game perhaps emphasised that sometimes squad with depth will win points where last season our squad with much less depth might not have won, that has always been something that some of our supporters have overlooked.

This was not an easy game by any means, Arsenal had 65% possession, we had to dig in and run our socks off to make sure that they could do little with it.

Arsene Wenger has wonderful eyesight when it suits him, he whinged that the first three of Saints goals should not have stood, that JWP was offisde (marginal and the benefit was rightly given it was that close) for the opener, that Long fouled ( marginal contact) for the second and that it was a goal kick ( proved it was a corner by TV replays) for the third.

So Saints have that vital win to break the slump and they can now head to West Ham on Monday evening with confidence knowing that the zest is back in our game.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters