Southampton Vs Sunderland: Player Ratings

Simon Mignolet - 7

As he has on several occasions so far this season, he didn't have much to do, but what he did do he did very well indeed. A superb stop in the first half denied Rickie Lambert a goal, but what really stood out was his bravery and calmness. In horrendous weather he caught everything and came to collect plenty of crosses rather than punch away or leave to someone else.

Craig Gardner - 7

A good game at right-back by Gardner today as he put in numerous good crosses into the area. Kind of faded once he was moved into central midfield, but we always knew that was going to happen. First half though he was great.

John O'Shea - 8

A long overdue good performance from O'Shea. Lead the team today in every possible way and was just generally a colossus at the back. Superb to see him recapture his brilliant form of last season, let's just hope it sticks.

Carlos Cuellar - 8

Equally as magnificent as O'Shea was Carlos Cuellar who also was superb defensively for us. Put his foot in and made tonnes of interceptions. Or so it seemed like anyway. Easy to see how much better he is in central defence than the stinker of a performance against Manchester United last weekend.

Danny Rose - 6

Not quite up to his usual incredibly high standards, but still a solid performance from Rose as he comes back from injury. Didn't have the usual surging runs forward as often but stood up to everything that came in his direction well.

Adam Johnson - 6

A fairly quiet one for Johnson, but looked very dangerous when he was given license to roam around the pitch. Overall though he didn't quite manage to get it going. Not that anyone did really. His injury is a bit of a worry headed into the festive period. Hopefully O'Neill took him off in order not to take chances rather than because of anything serious.

Jack Colback - 6

The usual quiet and tidy Jack Colback performance. Little fanfare to his game today, but stuck to his task of defending the back line reasonably well.

Seb Larsson - 6

A tidy but relatively anonymous performance from Larsson once again in the middle of midfield. His corners were superb, however he did spend a hell of a lot of the game being argumentative and was yellow carded accordingly in the first half.

James McClean - 6

Bit of an off day for McClean I thought today. Didn't manage to particularly put himself about after a string of improving performances. He, along with others, will have to step it up when the tougher opposition comes in the next two weeks.

Stephane Sessegnon - 7

Thought Sessegnon was another who put himself about quite well today and was a constant source of danger for the Southampton defence. A good performance.

Steven Fletcher - 6

Scored the only goal, which of course is a good thing but other than that we didn't see much of Fletcher today. Just didn't seem to really put himself about too much. Looked to be still carrying an injury too, which hopefully won't develop into anything serious.

Phil Bardsley - 5

Came on and made minimal impact when Seb Larsson was replaced. In fact the only thing he seemed to do was put in a pretty clumsy tackle on Steven De Ridder.

Fraizer Campbell - 5

On in relief of the injured Adam Johnson and didn't really do too much. Put in a canny block near the end when Southampton were in search on an equaliser though.

David Vaughan - 5

On for all of five minutes and must have had about five touches of the ball, if that.

Man Of The Match: John O'Shea

I think this might be the first time this season that O'Shea has come out at the top dog. A really, really impressive performance for him today, and one we hope he can keep up. Honourable mention for Carlos Cuellar, and Carlos Cuellar's beard which seems to have taken on a life of it's own.

Stick around our match stream HERE where we'll have further reaction from today's game against Southampton.