Ronald Koeman believes that Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert will have bigger problems to worry about than continuing a spat with him when the pair go head-to-head at Villa Park on Monday night.

Lambert sounded off in the summer over what he believed were public overtures from Koeman towards his centre half Ron Vlaar, accusing the Saints boss of ‘disrespecting’.

It was an odd incident as it appeared that the comments from Koeman were not quite as strong as they were interpreted at Villa Park however, and Koeman isn’t expecting a frosty reception on Monday night as he thinks Lambert will have more to worry about than that.

“It’s so easy that situation,” he explained.

“I spoke one time to a Dutch journalist about Vlaar and nothing more.

“If the manager of Aston Villa likes to take that as a big problem that’s his problem and not my problem.

“I think they have bigger problems to think about.”

Saints are keen to continue winning ways after the international break and to continue to keep piling up the points that have taken them to second in the Premier League table.

“Of course we would like to continue up in the table but it’s not the issue for us,” said Koeman.

“The issue is that we play to our qualities and then the possibility that you keep your position up in the table is more higher than normal.

“We know about the problem that we will have but everybody knows every game in the Premier League is a difficult game.

“Maybe Monday is more difficult than to play Man City at home, you never know because it’s football.

“We work game to game and we will see.”