JOSE Fonte is confident that Saints can avoid a relegation dogfight but admitted that this week is crucial in terms of steering clear of that dreaded Premier League drop zone.

Fonte has targeted two winnable home games – against Watford tomorrow night and then West Brom on Saturday – to pull away from the top-flight’s bottom three.

Saints have won once in ten games, have allowed opposition to capitalise on numerous defensive errors and have struggled to find the net – with the exception of the 4-0 Boxing Day win over Arsenal.

They have been staring worryingly downwards of late.

“It’s a crucial week,” said the skipper.

“For me it’s very important. It’s two homes games against two opponents we should be winning.”

He added: “The only way [to get out of this rut] is to keep working hard and lift your head up. There’s no point in dwelling and thinking about too much negativity.

“We need to be brave and we need to pick ourselves up because there’s another two very important games coming on.

“We need to focus now.”

Saints are still seven points away from Newcastle in 18th, but manager Ronald Koeman is wary that, if his side don’t pick up momentum soon, they could be dragged into a scrap for survival.

Fonte isn’t concerned yet, though, and reckons that if Saints come out the other side of the Hornets and Baggies clashes with two wins, it will be a significant turning point in their ailing campaign.

“No, I’m not worried but, like I said, we have two games in the Premier League this week,” he said.

“We know if we get two wins at home it will be big step for us towards more security and more confidence.

“That’s what I’m focused on: two wins.”

The impassioned 32-year-old continued: “Yes, we’ve been losing games.

But it could have been easily wins for us.

“We haven’t been hammered. We haven’t been dominated. We dominate.

We create the chances.

“If we were playing bad, if we were being dominated and a team that creates nothing and struggles against every team, it would be a different story.

“But we’re not, we’re a good team.

“We dominate games but things haven’t happened for us.

“We’ve made mistakes that we shouldn’t and we need to avoid.

“But what can you do? We need to focus on avoiding that and grind some results out.”