Mauricio Pochettino hailed Saints’ win over Everton as “an amazing achievement.”

Saints defeated the Champions League hopefuls 2-0 at St Mary’s with a dominant display.

The victory was thoroughly deserved and takes Saints even closer to a guaranteed eighth place finish, equalling their highest ever in the Premier League since the rebranding in 1992.

It was also only Saints’ third win against a club currently in the top 10 in 17 matches this season, with the others coming at Liverpool last September and at home to Newcastle last month.

“Overall all the players were excellent, they all played a great game,” said a delighted Pochettino.

“To beat a team such as Everton, who has won seven games out of their last eight, takes an amazing achievement and that’s exactly what we did. “We played very well against a very good team.”

Saints’ win came courtesy of own goals from Antolin Alcaraz and Seamus Coleman, meaning no Saints player has still scored from open play since Jay Rodriguez picked up his horror knee injury on April 5.

But Pochettino felt the own goals made the scoreline a little misleading as Saints were good value for the victory without Everton’s unwitting assistance.

“It’s an anecdote that those two goals were own goals. We created the chances to make those own goals happen,” said Pochettino.

“We had a great game.

“I want to congratulate the players because they had an amazing game against a team that is trying to break into the Champions League.

“My team played a great game. Not just the result, but how we achieved the victory was what really pleased me the most.”