Victor Wanyama feels Southampton still need more time to gel as they continue to struggle for form in the Premier League.
Saturday's 2-0 home defeat to Tottenham means Ronald Koeman's side have picked up only one point from their last five Premier League games and slumped to 12th in the table ahead of this weekend's visit of Arsenal.
Those struggles stand in stark contrast to last season, when Southampton finished seventh.
But Wanyama feels the Saints are still adjusting after a busy close-season in the transfer market that saw them sign nine new players as well as sell key stars Nathaniel Clyne and Morgan Schneiderlin to Liverpool and Manchester United respectively.
"We still need to work together and to know each other more because we had a lot of changes in the team and we still need a bit of time to gel together," the Kenya international told his club's official website.
"It is about being together. We just need to fight more and sharpen ourselves up because we have some tough games ahead.
"It is not going to go your way all the time, but we believe in ourselves and we believe we can still get there. We still have a chance and if we work hard then we can still get up there.
"We did well in the first 30 minutes [against Spurs] then I don't know what happened. It was difficult because we didn't have many chances."
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