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This season was always going to be a learning process for Saints.
They aspire to be a club who are regularly competing in Europe, and, therefore, doing well enough in the Premier League to be regularly qualifying for Europe.
It is not a position they could be described as being even remotely used to.
This first campaign in the Europa League group stages was always likely to throw up plenty of problems that need solving.
A first week of having to play the Thursday-Sunday grind has yielded two wins from two.
Even if both games were at home and against opposition who were not particularly great, they still needed to be overcome and they were.
That would make it wrong to really criticise, but it is fair to observe that Saints have surely picked up some pointers already.
Claude Puel made seven changes to the side to take on Sparta Prague, and then a further six to face Swansea.
That really is stretching his fairly small squad to the maximum.
When you also take into account that yet another competition starts up this week in the shape of the League Cup, and that wins were required after a mixed start to the season, there has been plenty to ponder for Puel.
There are a couple of observations from this first double header that stand out.
It all really stems from the fact that Puel is trying to manage his resources to make sure they can last him over what will be a very long season.
The first is that Charlie Austin and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg add so much to the side that you really could do with them being involved all the time. That might be impossible due to the number of games, but then you need to find a satisfactory way of not relying on them too heavily.
The second is that you need to find a balance between playing a style that conserves energy and one that gets results.
Particularly in the first half against Swansea, the players were often sat deep and tightly bunched when their opponents had the ball.
It might make for a smart way to conserve energy, but without tempo and pressing higher up the pitch creating chances is harder. The same goes for possession football at the back.
Again, these are balances that need to be struck, and Saints haven’t quite found the formula yet, but when you win a game despite missing several good opportunities you give yourself that breathing space.
Overall, they certainly deserved to beat Swansea and collect a first Premier League win of the season, even if the Welsh side carried very little threat going forward.
The first half was patchy stuff, but Saints should have still been ahead at the break.
Nathan Redmond had a few minutes to forget just before the break as he first slashed wide of the near post when presented with a half chance in the area, and then suffered a horrible moment when he blazed over with time and space to pick his spot ten yards out.
Shane Long was booked for diving when he believed he should have been awarded a penalty, and forced Lukasz Fabianski to spill a shot that Steven Davis and Dusan Tadic were grateful to be offside for as they challenged each other trying to convert the rebound, while Virgil van Dijk headed off target when picked out from a corner.
The only times Swansea tested Saints were Kyle Naughton’s early low drive stopped by Fraser Forster and Jose Fonte’s excellent block from Fernando Llorente.
Saints picked up the pace a little in the second period.
Naughton had to get back to stop Long’s flicked shot from creeping in at the far post before Oriol Romeu headed down into the turf and over the bar from a corner.
But it took the introduction of Hojbjerg and Austin on 54 minutes for Saints to really start to convince going forward.
Austin nearly scored on 62 minutes as he slid in to meet Redmond’s low ball from the right but struck the bar, with the rebound hitting Fabianski on the back of the head and bouncing away.
He proved yet again how deadly he is in the box a minute later however, as Tadic’s right wing cross flicked up off Jordi Amat, allowing Austin to control with his chest and hit a great volley as the ball dropped that rocketed into the opposite corner.
Forster had a bit of late business to attend to as he dived to his right to save from Gylfi Sigurdsson and ensure Saints bagged the three points they had earned.
With the pressure on these last couple of games, two wins and two clean sheets is plenty good enough, especially as the lessons learned hint at better things still to come.
Puel has momentum behind him now, and will be looking onwards and upwards as the games keep coming.
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...comically introduced by Optimus trousers...beta v1.9 - now with EXTRA pictures!
clean sheets in a row for 
happy manager. 
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