Ronald Koeman believes his side have set themselves up for a memorable second half of the season after securing a brave point against Premier League leaders Chelsea.

Saints hit the halfway mark in the season in fourth place thanks to a 1-1 draw with Jose Mourinho’s men that owed much to their defensive resilience.

Having had a fantastic start to the campaign, Saints endured a rocky patch with five defeats on the spin but are back on form now and looking ahead to what could be a memorable second half of the season.

Koeman said: “I think we can be very happy about the position we have in the table.

“I think we have played good football and the fans love it how we play.

“We have great support of our fans and we had a difficult time for a few weeks but the spirit is back, the confidence is back, and of course teams like City, teams like Chelsea, it’s so difficult to play against them. You can’t do any mistakes and that’s difficult.

“Even when you don’t make mistakes they can punish you because those kind of players with that kind of quality is very difficult.

“We are now half of the season and we learn from mistakes what we did in the past and if we keep going like this then we can fight for a high position on the table.”

Koeman was delighted to bag a point against Chelsea having suffered defeats to several of the division’s established big guns in recent weeks.

“Of course, one point against Chelsea is maybe three points against another opponent,” he reflected.

“I am proud of the players, the organisation in the team, the spirit in the team. We knew it would be very difficult but the boys did it fantastic.

“Of course we passed some difficult moments in the game.

“A little bit disappointed at half time because we conceded before half time and we stayed organised in the team and little bit of luck but you need that against these good teams to get a result.”

He added: “The difference was we played until the last second a good organisation and the spirit we showed was unbelievable.

“The difference in my opinion was we didn’t make stupid mistakes that we did against City and United.

“I don’t say the better team (in the first half) but the game was in balance and the second half was more difficult.

“We played well, we had more ball possession then the second half and a great goal that we scored and in the first half very happy.”