Ronald Koeman believes there are few teams better than Saints in the Premier League this season.

The Saints boss was in bullish mood when talking about the success of side so far in a campaign that sees them sit second in the Premier League and in the quarter-finals of the Capital One Cup.

There is a lot of talk in the wider footballing world as to whether Saints can sustain their blistering start to the campaign, but Koeman is confident when he assesses his men up against the rest of the top flight sides.

"Maybe a lot of people are very surprised, because in the start of the season I understand," he said.

"But I had from the beginning the belief in the players, the belief in the team, the belief in the team spirit. Ok, not to be now on this moment after nine, ten games to be the second on the list, but we have good players.

"We have a good football playing team. We like to play football, and we like to enjoy the people and everybody’s happy, everybody enjoys how we play. I think that's very important and we know we can keep this.

"I'm not afraid about another situation, because if I watch the rest of the teams I don't think that a lot of teams are better than Southampton."

Saints' latest challenge comes tomorrow when they take on Hull at the KC Stadium.

"They had two good results, two difficult away games, at Arsenal and Liverpool, but maybe they need now to play at home and to play maybe more offensive than what they did in the last two games and that makes maybe the game a little bit more open than it was in the last two for them," said Koeman.

"But we know everyone is a tough one.

"There isn't an easy game, and we have to prepare ourselves very good to be good for this Saturday."

Saints have stayed and trained at St George's Park, the FA's £105m training base, to allow the players the best chance to recover from the Capital One Cup victory over Stoke before facing Hull.

Koeman insists he wanted to do this for recovery.

"That's true, yes, that's one of the big reasons that we stay here, because, if not, you have to travel late coming back in the night and to travel again Friday after the training, and now we stay together.

"That's good for the team building and, ok, we can take now the maximum to recover for this Saturday.

"Great facilities. They are fantastic. We don’t have these kind of facilities in Holland, but it’s wonderful to be here and then to work in that great a facility."

Despite Saints' flying start to the season Koeman is still refusing to talk targets for his side.

"The target was to play attractive football and offensive football, to enjoy the people. That's one, but I understand also about the results, but I think and I believe in the way how you play that gave the boys a lot of fun.

"They are enjoying and, ok, we will enjoy it more easier if the results are good and we had a good start in the season, and that gave everybody the right spirit, and I think that's the best quality of this team, is really the team spirit, what they show every day."