Ronald Koeman wary of Saints sliding into relegation battle

Ronald Koeman has warned his Southampton side they risk being dragged into a relegation battle if they do not arrest their poor run of form soon.

Saints take on Tottenham on Saturday on the back of a run of five games without a win, including a 6-1 home defeat to Liverpool in the Capital One Cup.

Their only league point in that time was a frustrating 1-1 home draw with bottom club Aston Villa, leaving them eight points off both the top four and relegation.

Asked if he thought his side was at risk of sliding into trouble, Koeman said: "Yes, I think so.

"That's all about what happens in the next coming weeks. I'm always positive, I think we will get good results in the next couple of weeks, but if we don't get wins in the next couple of weeks then we're close to the rest of the teams who maybe are now struggling against relegation.

"I think to win the title, to win the Premier League [this season], you don't need that number of points what normally you need, and maybe that's the same in the bottom of the league, relegation is more teams because we are so close to each other in the table.

"If you get a good run... two weeks ago we had a 1-1 with Aston Villa. It's always 'if', but with two points more, we could have gone fifth in the table and everybody would have been laughing. Everybody's worried, and that's in two weeks, and that's the Premier League.

"In two weeks you can be there, in which position you like to be, but if you don't win and you get three in a row that you lose, then it's a different world."

With Chelsea, Newcastle and Swansea below Southampton in the table, Koeman's side are not alone in under-achieving and he is confident there is too much quality St Mary's to end up in the bottom three.

"I think [we are too good for relegation], yes, because we have competition in our squad, we are not the team in that position, but if you stay close, that's all about confidence, about belief, spirit in the team, and you see Chelsea...

"It's difficult to come out of that situation. Everybody was expecting six, seven weeks ago, 'Chelsea will come up', and everybody was sure about that, but now they are struggling, and that means that's difficult to change that situation because everybody can improve, and everybody is strong, and every game is a difficult one, and it's no 4-0, it's no 5-1, it's all 1-0, 1-1, 2-1, and that's difficult. That can happen also for Southampton.

"If we win three points from Tottenham [it can transform our season]."