Grady Diangana is statistically the 54th best performing player in the Championship this season. Matt Phillips is the 51st and Kyle Bartley the 47th, according to WhoScored. They occupy rungs four, three and two respectively in the West Bromwich Albion performance ladder. At the top, and clear by some distance, is John Swift in 14th.

It's remarkable, truly, that Albion have achieved as impressive a return in this recently ended block without him. Ten points from 15 on offer...you'd have probably taken that had you been offered it at the beginning of the block, knowing that there were tricky games on the road and the banana skins especially of Plymouth and Hull presented as challenges.

All without Swift, the outright top scorer this season and, statistically as mentioned, clearly among the best players in the division. In adversity, without important personnel, Albion have regrouped and produced. Others have stepped up - Alex Mowatt, Cedric Kipre and Phillips were already enjoying excellent campaigns, but Diangana has reignited and Jed Wallace's performance levels have definitely picked up, too.

Now, being able to unleash Swift shortly after this international break will be another real weapon in Carlos Corberan's arsenal. They've not spent the last five matches desperately crying out for his influence, which would've heightened the pressure on his return. Instead, now, he'll return in his own time to complement his in-form teammates and give Corberan the sort of headache all managers relish.

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Then there is Josh Maja. His will be a slightly different return, because we only really have that extremely promising performance at Bristol City to cling onto. Of all of his cameos, this was clearly his best by some way and we were left excited by what might've followed, only for Maja to be wiped out at the death and, as a consequence, wiped out of the following two months worth of Albion fixtures.

Now, if Maja can pick up where he left off after months of rehabilitation and watching from the stands, then Albion could really be in business. Goals haven't even necessarily been a serious issue on the whole this season, but what they have missed for quite some time is a striker who can hit 20 goals in this league. Heading into late November, that's not feasible for Maja who hasn't yet got off the mark, but he can provide another angle to their attack - either by himself or alongside another.

Make no bones about it - Albion should've won the game on Saturday. They were better than Southampton across the course of the 90, especially in the second period, but bringing it all together in the penalty area proved to be the issue. On afternoons like the one at St Mary's, against an opponent who possess exactly what Albion are after in the opposing penalty area, that proved to be the difference and it left Corberan immeasurably frustrated.

"Football shows us that we need to be perfect," he assessed. "Against Southampton, with the quality they have at the front of the attack, you need to be perfect. They play from the back, with the pressing you need to be perfect. In the first half we weren't. We didn't defend perfectly in the only opportunity they had.

"We weren't perfect in our finishing the opportunities we had and we were not perfect in the only time they had a chance - when they scored the second goal. That's why it's frustrating, because making very good things, we went home with no points. I think they have been better than us in the last third of the pitch. Just in the box, not even in the last third. I don't remember big opportunities for them, and I remember many possibilities for us."

Albion are slowly getting their squad back together. They avoided worrying set-backs with Kyle Bartley and Cedric Kipre and have since regained Semi Ajayi and Jeremy Sarmiento. With Maja and Swift back in the match-day 20, the outlook appears rosier still - and Corberan will once more have two of his most important players at his disposal, enabling Albion to settle future games akin to Saturday's in their favour.

What is Albion's best XI when Swift and Maja return to the squad?