Southampton were nearly gifted an early lead when Swansea goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski spilt a shot from Shane Long.
Advertisement
Southampton boss Claude Puel has set his sights on a first Premier League win following their triumph in the Europa League on Thursday.
Puel made six changes from the side that beat Sparta Prague 3-0 in the Europa League and left Jay Rodriguez and James Ward-Prowse out of his squad altogether.
Naughton came to the Swans’ rescue just three minutes into the second half as he cleared Long’s ball across the face of goal off the line before Tadic could get there, and they had the offside flag to thank for keeping the scores level moments later when Long tapped in Redmond’s square-ball.
Long’s afternoon was over shortly after but Austin’s first action was to crash Redmond’s perfectly-weighted ball across the area onto the crossbar.
In the minutes preceding the goal, Southampton had been amazed to see several gilt-edged chances fail to find the target.
But Austin rewarded Southampton’s pressure just after the hour when he chested the ball down and struck a rising shot.
Swansea struggled to make any leeway in the match, Gylfi Sigurdsson having its best chance late in the match.
Advertisement
It was Austin’s first Premier League goal since his debut victor against Manchester United in January, and earned Saints a deserved three points from a dominant display. “I’m frustrated, of course, (to be on the bench) as I scored twice in midweek but if the manager wants to rotate then he is the boss”.
