Pochettino to keep faith with his young Saints

Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino expressed his confidence in Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers and James Ward-Prowse after the trio of 18-year-olds helped Saints to a 1-0 victory at West Brom.

All three of the England youth internationals made notable contributions to Southampton’s opening-day triumph having been named in the first 11, with defender Shaw earning the penalty, via a challenge by Youssouf Mulumbu, from which Rickie Lambert scored the winning goal in the 90th minute.

Asked about Shaw, his fellow full-back Chambers — who was making his first senior start — and midfielder Ward-Prowse, Pochettino said: “All I can say is that I am confident they are good enough players to play in this league.

“I am only taking advantage of the work that has been in place already at Southampton for the last four years — the amazing work that [executive chairman] Nicola Cortese has done in that sense, in bringing young players through the academy system.”

Meanwhile, Everton boss Roberto Martinez and Norwich manager Chris Hughton were left in disagreement as to whether the 2-2 draw was a fair result at Carrow Road.

The two clubs had to settle for a share of the spoils after four goals in a 20-minute period during the second half.

Steven Whittaker opened the scoring for the hosts before Everton hit back with goals from Ross Barkley and Seamus Coleman.

Norwich debutant Ricky van Wolfswinkel then headed in a 71st-minute equaliser with his manager Hughton declaring he felt his side did enough to warrant a draw.

“I thought it was a fair reflection of the game,” he said. “Today we were up against a full strength Everton side. If you look at the quality and maturity they’ve got in the side you can see why they’ve done so well over the years.”

Martinez, following his first game in charge of Everton, disagreed with Hughton’s view and felt his side deserved to head back to Merseyside with the win.

“I think overall we deserved the three points,” he said. “But the result reflects the draw because we conceded two soft goals. Overall from a neutral point of view probably we deserved the three points and we did enough.”