Ralph Hasenhuttl insists Southampton have belief in what they are doing and wants them to build on their solid start to the season.
Southampton are on a four-match unbeaten run following a 2-0 win over Everton last weekend, and will be looking to extend that record against Aston Villa on Sunday.
Saints’ last defeat came in September, and a victory at Villa Park would see Hasenhuttl’s men go ahead of Villa in the table, with the potential to move them into the top four.
The start to the season is also Southampton’s best in six years, and the manager believes it could be significant for the remaining matches.
“It wasn’t so difficult to have a better one than last season!” Hasenhuttl said.
“It’s always important you grab points as quick as possible. After the first two games it didn’t look like it could be a better start! It was good that we found our winning track back as quick as possible.
“In the end, it’s not important to have in the beginning more points, it’s important to have consistency in your performances because that helps you massively to be a team that competes with the others.
“We have the belief in what we’re doing. The last four games really good, especially the last one. Absolutely not one of our worst with the ball and against the ball. A very good performance.
“This is now the level we want to take and from this we want to build up and not fall back to old behaviours and try to build up from this level where we are now because it’s still not everything perfect, it’s still not everything fantastic.
“There are coming new challenges and tough fixtures and you must be always be able to reach this highest level and then you have a chance and this is the goal every week.”
Hasenhuttl has chosen a largely similar side this year for all matches, and believes that has helped the team.
When asked about his consistent squad, the Austrian said: ““We don’t have that many games that we have to change and bring fresh players in. This is a good thing at the moment.
“We had a few changes, especially in the No10 position, in the last weeks but the rest was settled.
“It’s good because you can see that there are some habits. We know each other and this helps, definitely.
“The goal for a manager is to have as quick as possible an XI that you can trust and from there, everybody has a chance to step in but it’s tough.”
