DUSAN Tadic believes Saints’ poor results against the Premier League’s elite this season are due to a lack of experience.

“We have some good moments, but we miss experience in these kind of games,” he said after the 4-2 loss at leaders Chelsea on Tuesday.

That defeat left Saints still waiting for their first win against a member of the elite six this season.

But do the statistics agree with the Serbian’s comments?

The average age of the Saints players that appeared at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday was 26 years and seven months.

James Ward-Prowse, at 22 years and five months, was the youngest - with Steven Davis (32 & 3 months) and Shane Long (30 & 3 months) the only thirty-somethings among the 14 players.

The 14 players had an average of 89 appearances for the club between them (Davis with 189 and Ward-Prowse with 166 boasting the most and Stephens (18) the fewest.

Last season, though, Saints enjoyed great results with teams virtually the same age as the one Claude Puel put his faith in at Chelsea.

For example, the average age of the team that beat Liverpool 3-2 at St Mary’s in March 2016 - after being 2-0 down - was just one month older than Puel’s team on Tuesday night.

That suggests Saints are suffering from a drop in quality, rather than a huge drop in experience as Tadic has suggested.

Either that or it’s a confidence issue, or it’s down to Puel’s tactics and team selections.

Seven players appeared in that win against Liverpool who didn’t start at Chelsea - Jose Fonte, Cuco Martina, Virgil van Dijk, Graziano Pelle, Victor Wanyama, Shane Long and Sadio Mane.

Fonte, Pelle, Wanyama and Mane have since been sold, while van Dijk is out injured.

That is a huge amount of quality on offer to Ronald Koeman that was not available to Puel at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea’s average age on Tuesday was 28 years and five months - almost two years extra per player. Keeper Thibaut Courtois was the youngest player in Antonio Conte’s team, and he turns 25 next month. Experience is key for Conte, therefore.

Across the capital, Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino regularly fields the team with the youngest average in the top flight.

In Spurs’ last league game against Cherries, the average age was 25 years and 7 months - virtually three years per player younger than Chelsea.