Ronald Koeman insists he hasn’t changed how he views his team or what they can achieve this season despite the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City.

Saints were straight back into training at Staplewood yesterday morning for a recovery session and a debrief after the loss to City and are now looking ahead to tomorrow’s trip to Arsenal.

There was a slight feeling of deflation after a disappointing second half at St Mary’s but nothing has changed in Koeman’s mind when it comes to his team.

He said: “We know that it’s a tough programme, we know that, but every game in the Premier League is a tough one.

“And still we have a great start to the season, we have 26 points and that’s not changing my opinion.

“We know our qualities, we know our weakness.

“I was disappointed about the last two goals - we have to do that better.

“It was not normal because we haven’t conceded a lot of goals and we haven’t made many mistakes, and then we have to give a good reaction about that.”

Koeman admitted his team lack the experience of being a top four side but still thinks they have the ingredients to challenge.

“It’s about a lot of aspects in football. I think we have a fantastic spirit in the team. We have very good professional players. They know exactly what they have to do to be a good professional, but we have to learn – we have to learn from the mistakes,” he reflected.

“We can talk about that, we can show them clips from the game, but finally that is for the player by himself to change and to learn off that, and we speak about that.”

Arsenal will certainly provide another tough test for Saints in a nine day run that sees them face both Manchester sides as well as the Gunners.

Saints have defeated Arsenal already this season in the Capital One Cup but that means little to Koeman ahead of this game “No, because every game is different,” he insisted.

“Only this is good for the confidence, that we know how to win against Arsenal.

“We will remember how we did in that game but football now is a new one, it’s another game, Premier League, and you can’t compare that with the League Cup.”

He added: “Like City they have had some problems, but the last two games they have won, their spirit is back and they’ve had a good result in the Champions League.

“They won last weekend and they have good players.

“It’s a team who has to fight to win the title, and if not then there are critics, that’s normal.

“It’s always nice to play against him (Arsene Wenger), because he likes to play offensive, good football.

“That means that you will get space to play by yourself.

“And we had a fantastic game in the League Cup that we won.

“That gives us confidence, but to play and to win against that kind of team you have to be good, and what I said after Sunday, Sunday wasn’t good enough.

“We made too many mistakes and if you make those kinds of mistakes you can’t win against top teams.”