Ronald Koeman insists he is still not entirely happy with Saints’ performances on the road this season despite the club setting a post-war away record.

Saints have gone five Premier League games unbeaten from the start of this season, form which has delighted the majority of their travelling fans.

However, Koeman is ever the perfectionist and he is frustrated that some of the draws have not been turned to into wins, with the sole away day victory coming at Chelsea and the rest yielding a single point.

He said: “It was a long time ago that we won away. The draw at Watford and the 0-0 with West Brom I think we didn’t play good enough or create enough.

“It’s not like ‘we don’t lose, I’m happy’, it’s not always about the result.

“I like to be honest to my players and we didn’t play at our level offensive wise.

“Defensively we are strong, it is difficult to score against Southampton but we can play better than we did against Watford and West Brom.”

For Koeman, the fine line between converting those draws into wins comes in the final third.

“We need to be sharper in the box and create out of a lot of ball possession,” he admitted.

“That is the key to score goals and win the game.”

He added: “If you don’t lose away that gives everybody a good feeling, a feeling to be unbeaten until now is a good feeling.

“If we count points maybe it’s better to lose one and to win one.

“It was a long time ago that we won and we won against Chelsea and it was not always the performance what we expect of the team in our away games and maybe that confidence this Saturday can change.

“We need a win, we know what we can expect from Sunderland, they had a big loss against Everton, they will react, they play at home and need points, and normally that’s the most dangerous teams to play against.”

Sunderland come into the game reeling from their 6-2 drubbing against Everton.

Romelu Lukaku and Arouna Kone caused the Black Cats untold problems, and with Saints having Graziano Pelle and Sadio Mane in fine form in front of goal, Koeman knows his side could do something similar.

“They can do because we have very good strikers,” he reflected.

“I don’t think so that they will do that kind of mistakes what they did against Everton, and Everton punished them for the mistakes they did defensive wise.

“We have players to create a lot of problems for them.”