Ronald Koeman believes it will be good for the Premier League if Saints manage to finish in the top four.

Though the Saints boss played down any notion that his side were looking at chasing either Manchester City or Chelsea, he knows that Champions League qualification is an increasingly possible target to achieve.

The top four has really been a closed shop, with only a handful of sides realistically contesting the places each season.

Saints could break the mould, something Koeman feels will benefit English football.

“I think it will be good for the Premier League that one team will break that,” he said.

“That will give a lot of confidence to the rest of the teams to try, but it will be very difficult because it’s always the same.

“Maybe big teams have a period of struggling but never a whole season.

“Normally the big teams have the most finance possibilities to have the best players. It will be a good a team out of that will fight for a high position.

“Last season it was Everton who was fighting for that position and it looks like we are now the team who will fight for that position.

“That’s good because it makes changes and it’s good for the rest of the clubs.”

He added: “It’s not easy because maybe some times they (the big clubs) struggle for a period of games but never for the whole season because they have the best players, and if not they buy the best players.

“It’s so difficult.

“We have to see until the end of the season if we are good enough to do that.

“That’s a challenge.”

Koeman was again asked whether Saints could have ambitions beyond even third, but replied: “No. I look more back than up. Maybe in three weeks it will be different.

“At the moment we are watching the teams around us and behind us because I think that’s our focus and not the second or the first place.”

He was also keen to stress that what Saints are doing can be replicated elsewhere – but it starts with getting the correct structure in place.

“Of course it is the achievement of the whole club who makes that great,” said Koeman.

“They start that last season because in the last five or six years the club is growing. They had the eighth position on the table last season and it was a great season for the club.

“We try to do it better this season and it looks like it is possible. The rest of the teams with a good organisation, a good structure, you can grow and not in one season but in four, five, six years you can grow up.

“You can do that as a battle to the big ones and we try to do that and that’s the best we can do.”