Ronald Koeman believes his players can handle the expectation that has come as a result of their fantastic start to the season.

With Saints second in the Premier League table ahead of tomorrow’s visit of Leicester to St Mary’s, confidence and momentum are with Koeman’s side.

However, extra pressure and expectation is starting to fall on the squad’s shoulders with the likes of the Foxes now being viewed by some pundits as an almost certain three points for Saints.

The danger facing Saints is that the extra spotlight and heightened expectation burns the players, something which Koeman is aware of and is trying to address.

He said: “Maybe for some players it’s a new situation.

“If you play for Southampton you didn’t play in the Champions League, for the title in the league or for European Cup football.

“It’s a new situation and a new situation brings different details to the team but the position of the table isn’t the most important.

“It’s nice to see that you are winning and it’s nice for the fans but we have to deal with that.

“Saturday maybe is an examination to show that still we keep that ambition and still we have to work hard for winning games and that will be nice for this Saturday.”

He added: “Of course with more expectation, that’s true.

“We spoke about that and everybody likes to win and if you are winning the expectation is higher and the pressure is more but we have to live with that because we like to continue, we have ambition and it’s a detail we have to do on a good way.

“Everything starts that you understand that every game is a new one and you cannot live in what you did in the past.

“You have to look forward and work hard to keep what we are doing until now.”

Koeman has no fresh injury worries ahead of the game and is expecting Leicester to make life difficult for his side.

“I think so. Leicester will come to have a good organisation on the pitch, to close the lines and not have a lot of space for us to play,” he reckoned.

“We are talking that when we have the ball we need good possession and good positions on the pitch to play high tempo.

“We know that and all of that training sessions normally is what we are doing.

“It’s all about possession game and OK the physical part is an important part for football but I still believe in the way of playing and that makes the difference between teams.”

The Leicester game represents the final match before another international break, but Koeman insists that doesn’t make it any more or less significant.

“Always it’s an important game,” he reflected.

“It’s the last before the next international break and it’s a game that our fans expect that we will that game.

“That’s normally the most difficult games to win.

“If we understand that then the chance to win is a big one.”

Koeman was again asked about the title race with Saints in second place but he believes it is a straight fight between Chelsea and Manchester City.

“I think it’s a two team race because still I believe that City and Chelsea are more stronger over the whole season and not in one game because I think we can beat them.

“Over the whole season normally they are stronger than we.

“We know our situation, we know our ambition and we live game by game and it’s not necessary to look more forward.”

He added: “We know our schedule for the month of December and the end of November.

“We will have a tough week in the beginning of December but we will look forward to that because that gives us the possibilities to play well and see what we can do against the big ones.

“The first one we have to play this weekend against Leicester and maybe that’s more difficult.”