It was Ivanovic’s second goal of the season, scored in the 89th minute and it came just 14 minutes after Cesc Fabregas had cancelled out Shane Long’s first-half opener for Southampton.

‘I didn’t actually see the ball go into the net but it is fantastic, a great feeling,’ said Ivanovic shortly after the final whistle. ‘I think these goals are not important for the individual but they are important for us and we work as a team.

‘It was a very difficult game, I think the hardest game away for us this season,’ he added.

‘We had to work really, really hard for these three points. We controlled the game but Southampton were very difficult to defend against because they played very well in counter-attack, but we scored our goals and I think we deserved these big three points.’

The result extends the Blues’ unbeaten run in the Premier League to 11 matches and moved us up to 11th in the table.

‘Every time when we relax even for a few seconds we lose points so we have to go step by step,’ warned Ivanovic. ‘We have in three days another game and we have to be very careful because it is another away game against a difficult opponent, but we will be focused and we will try to take everything we can from this season.’