Gylfi Sigurdsson earned the praise of head coach Paul Clement after the Swansea City midfielder scored again to earn his club a crucial 2-1 victory over Southampton at the Liberty Stadium.

The Iceland international’s expert finish from Luciano Narsingh’s cross gave the Swans back-to-back wins for the first time this season to strengthen their survival hopes.

They had led through Alfie Mawson’s 38th-minute header, only to be pegged back by Shane Long’s close range finish 12 minutes after the break.

But Sigurdsson, who had been linked with a move away from the Welsh club this month, underlined his importance with his seventh goal of the season and his second vital winner in as many games having scored the clinching strike against Liverpool at Anfield.

“Gylfi has fantastic delivery at set-plays and he produced a wonderful finish after good work from Luciano Narsingh, who made an instant impact,” said Clement.

“But I would like to comment on Gylfi’s work ethic. People have asked me if he is all right playing on the left, but I haven’t had a conversation with him about that.

“He has done everything that has been asked of him.”

And head coach Clement also praised the character of his side after they held off wave after wave of Saints pressure to secure the three points.

“It was a mixed performance, but a massive, massive result against a good side,” he added.

“They had a really good 3-0 victory over Leicester in their last league game and then they got a massive win at Anfield, so we have beaten a really good side here tonight.

“We did some really good things. We didn’t start very well – we gave them too much space in the first 10 minutes.

“But once we got to grips with that we had a good spell in to half-time and then defended well when there were a lot of balls into our box late on.”

Clement also confirmed striker Borja Baston would not be joining Villarreal on loan despite a deadline enquiry from the Spanish side for Swansea’s record signing.

Swansea started sluggishly but they grew into the game and led when Mawson got up to meet Sigurdsson’s corner, finding the net with the aid of deflections off Oriol Romeu and the post.

Long levelled by neatly finishing a Ryan Bertrand cross, but Swansea hit back on the break thanks to Sigurdsson’s classy finish.

“We had many chances, came back with a good goal from Shane, we pushed,” said Southampton boss Claude Puel.

“After this goal we pushed all the time, with many chances but we didn’t find the goal, which is disappointing because we can do better.

“Perhaps the reaction in the second half was too late, it is difficult to take the positives when you suffer a defeat.

“It was a good reaction but Swansea were clinical tonight in taking their chances.”