MORGAN Schneiderlin reckons Saints’ midfielders need to score at least five goals apiece to help the club to another top-eight finish.

Victor Wanyama became the second Saints midfielder in as many games to score his first Premier League goal when he struck the winner against Swansea City, a week after Jack Cork broke his duck against Newcastle.

And Schneiderlin’s three goals in the previous two games means he has already scored more goals than he did in the whole of last season He said: “The midfielders are scoring more, which is a good thing because to finish above eighth we need to score more than five goals, for sure.

“I’m delighted for Victor, he did very well to score after coming off the bench. It’s part of our job to score more goals, so we’re doing more shooting on the training ground and are keeping our composure when we get the chances in matches.”

After a summer of flux, Schneiderlin, below, admits he has been pleasantly surprised by Saints’ best five-game start to a Premier League season.

“Of course it’s a surprise because there were a lot of changes, the coaching staff and a lot of players went and a lot of people said Southampton would be struggling this year because we lost too many player blah, blah, blah.

“But it’s only five games. Last year, we had a very good start but we didn’t have a very good run in November and December and after that it was harder to come back to the top places.

“We’ve had two years’ experience and now we’ll try and be better, but the Premier League is very long, that period when there are a lot of games and the weather isn’t so good is very important so let’s keep our feet on the ground.”

Encouragingly, Saints showed they have the ability to win without being at their best at the Liberty Stadium.

Lucky “It was a good result but it was a very hard game,” continued Schneiderlin. “Ok, we won 1-0 but the first half was very difficult for us. They had possession of the ball, they created chances and we had to be strong not to concede a goal.

“We were lucky, they hit the crossbar so 0-0 was very good for us at half-time. It’s never easy against ten men, sometimes it’s more difficult than against 11, but we kept our composure and Victor did very well to score the goal.

“Swansea is one of the toughest places to go because they’re very good with the ball and are a very good team.

“We did what we had to do to win that game. Now we have to be focused. There were things we didn’t do very well so we can be better.”