Ronald Koeman believes his side can get a positive result at struggling Chelsea on Saturday – but insists he thought exactly the same last season.

Much has been made of Chelsea’s poor start to the campaign, with the Blues having lost more games already this season than they did in the whole of the previous campaign.

Saints held them to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge last year, and Koeman is confident again ahead of this weekend’s trip to London.

“That feeling we had already last year,” he admitted.

“We know maybe the start of the season is not what everybody expect of Chelsea because normally they fight to win titles.

“They were the strongest team last year but ok it don’t say anything about the situation because they have the qualities, they have the players to give a good reaction.

“Finally they will go up in the table.

“We know what we can expect, we can have a good result if we play on our level because we have two times a draw against them last year.

“That belief we had last year we have to show again.”

Koeman doesn’t expect the Chelsea slump to continue forever and added: “Normally they will fight to win titles because it’s not like that one year they have really the best team and the next year is not like that.

“Everybody can have a difficult start of the season.

“Maybe defensively they lost a little bit.

“If you watch the goals what they get in against them, that’s a big difference than last year. “Maybe they lost a little bit but still they are very strong.”