Southampton are now just two wins away from the magical 40 points mark as they look to secure their Premier League survival.

After they were hammered 9-0 at home against Leicester City in November, that looked like a long way off. However, Ralph Hasenhuttl has turned around the Saints’ fortunes since then – they have won eight of their last 14 games in the top-flight, and are now 10 points clear of the relegation zone.

Many of the usual suspects were included in the south-coast side’s starting line-up in their 2-0 victory against Aston Villa, but Will Smallbone’s inclusion was a rather surprising one. Against the Villans, he was making just his second ever appearance for the senior side, and his very first in the Premier League. Despite only turning 20 on Friday, he did not look out of place.

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Lining up in midfield alongside Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, he picked up a SofaScore rating of 6.9. Whilst that was only better than one of his teammates, he still didn’t embarrass himself. He won two out of the three ground duels he contested, for example, whilst he also won two fouls for his side.

He slotted into the middle of the park with relative ease and did not cost his side in any way. His presence clearly didn’t affect Southampton’s defensive performance either – indeed, for just the second time in the last six matches, they managed to keep a clean sheet.

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His inclusion in the side shows that Hasenhuttl is now comfortable to look towards the future rather than just the here and now. When Southampton were languishing in the bottom three, it is unlikely he would have taken the risk of handing out a Premier League debut to such an inexperienced youngster.

Now though, he has more freedom to try new things, and his confidence is obviously brushing off on the players. Whilst Smallbone may not have scored or provided a assist, he was given the keys to the engine room, and helped his team to an excellent victory. The fact that James Ward-Prowse was moved over to right-back when he could quite easily have played there instead, showed Hasenhuttl’s massive faith in the prospect – and he was duly rewarded with a win.

Southampton are now just six points off Tottenham and Sheffield United in the Europa League places – they couldn’t, could they?

Elsewhere, Carl Anka speaks on the future of this Saints man.