What a difference 78 days makes. Southampton assuaged the pain of their 9-0 thrashing by Leicester in October with victory courtesy of a late goal from Danny Ings after a performance which illustrated the huge strides they are making under Ralph Hasenhüttl.

When Dennis Praet opened the scoring for Brendan Rodgers’s side in the 14th minute, the travelling supporters must have feared a repeat of their nightmare at St Mary’s. But having equalised soon after through Stuart Armstrong’s deflected shot, a 14th Premier League goal of the season for the striker who is quickly gaining cult hero status on the south coast nine minutes from time left their Austrian manager cavorting on the touchline in celebration.

A Jonny Evans header in the last minute seemed to have stopped him in his tracks, only for VAR to rule that the defender had been offside – the third time Leicester correctly had seen a goal disallowed. But Rodgers could have no complaints about this result following a strangely lacklustre performance from his players. “I always felt this was going to be a dangerous game and it proved to be that,” acknowledged the Leicester manager afterwards. “We just didn’t play well.”

Rodgers would have had nothing to do with the decision to replay, on the big screen before kick-off, all nine goals from a match which is also available on DVD on Leicester’s website but with the benefit of hindsight, it seemed a strange one that could only motivate their opponents. Six of the side who started Southampton’s worst-ever defeat had been handed the opportunity to make amends, with Hasenhüttl admitting during the week that a great deal of soul-searching had taken place since that night in October. The decision to revert to his favoured 4-2-2-2 formation has paid real dividends in recent weeks as they have moved away from relegation trouble, thanks largely to increased solidity in defence.

Jamie Vardy’s absence for the wins over West Ham and Newcastle after his wife gave birth to a daughter on New Year’s Day showed that Leicester do not necessarily rely on their talismanic striker, although they are a significantly better side when he is in the team. Rodgers expressed his doubts this week whether the 33-year-old would go back on his decision to retire from international football despite the potential opportunity to earn a recall from Gareth Southgate for this summer’s European Championship. Ings could end up being the main beneficiary if he continues to find the net as consistently as he has this season but he failed to make the most of his first opportunity in the sixth minute after a risky back pass from Harvey Barnes.

Southampton were made to pay for their profligacy when a quickly taken free-kick from Ayoze Pérez picked out Vardy’s run down the left and his cross left Praet with a simple tap-in at the far post for his first goal since his £18m move from Sampdoria in the summer. Hasenhüttl’s side are made of stronger stuff these days, however, and within six minutes they were level thanks to a massive deflection off James Maddison’s arm which diverted Armstrong’s shot past a helpless Kasper Schmeichel.

Vardy then saw his effort correctly ruled out for offside but it was the visitors who should have gone in ahead at half-time. Ings struck the woodwork twice in the space of 60 seconds after Schmeichel had come to Leicester’s rescue again, with Rodgers looking relieved as the second effort from long range bounced away to safety.

The absence of midfield linchpin Wilfred Ndidi, who is set to be sidelined for a month with a knee injury, seemed to hamper the usually fluent hosts in the first period and in swirling wind and rain both sides found conditions difficult.

VAR then came to Leicester’s rescue when Shane Long was adjudged to be marginally offside from Armstrong’s through ball before being brought down by Caglar Soyuncu for a penalty, while Kelechi Iheanacho was also correctly denied at the other end for the same offence.

But it was another substitute, Che Adams, who provided what proved to be the decisive moment with a perfect pass for Ings to seal the most unlikely of comebacks and a fifth win in Southampton’s last six matches in all competitions.

“The guys left everything on the pitch,” said Hasenhüttl. “With the special history of this game we pushed a lot of good buttons during the week, otherwise this kind of performance was not possible. We wanted to show how much this team has changed since then.”