Saints head into one of the most exciting nine-day periods in the club’s history, with Ronald Koeman insisting this is a vital time if his side are to do something special this season.

Saints welcome Premier League champions Manchester City to St Mary’s tomorrow before a trip to Arsenal and then a home match against Manchester United.

After such a high-flying start to the season, which sees Saints sitting second in the Premier League table, many people are watching and waiting for the outcome of this triple-header to assess whether Koeman’s team can last the distance.

If they can put together even just a reasonable return of points then they will surely be considered as serious contenders for a shock Champions League spot come the end of the season.

If, however, they struggle, many will write them off and claim the bubble has burst.

Koeman himself is not shying away from the reality of the situation.

“I think if we will do it and if we like to do better than last season this period is important because we play nine games until January 1 and that’s difficult, a difficult programme,” he said.

“Everybody knows there isn’t an easy game in the Premier League and you have to be prepared every game and we know if we like to do something special this season then we have to win these kind of games that we have to play.

“Every person can have their own opinion about the team.

“I think we have a strong team, we play out of a good organisation but we realise that this Sunday we play against one of the teams who can win the title and who won the title last season.

“We know that we have to be good, that we have to play better than we did last Monday but I said before that it’s not easy to beat Southampton and we will show that on Sunday.”

It’s a testament to Saints that heading into the opening game of the big three, all the talk is about Saints and not Manchester City.

While City have had mixed fortunes this season and look unlikely to chase down Chelsea in the hunt for the title, Saints have been exceeding all expectations, with that talk of the top four now gaining momentum.

“We try to play game by game and prepare ourselves in the best way for every game,” said Koeman.

“We know our possibilities but we played 12 games now and I didn’t see one team better than we in these 12 games and we played against Liverpool and Tottenham.

“Maybe Sunday but we will see.”

Certainly tomorrow will be a stern examination of Saints’ credentials.

City have quality in every department, and in incredible depth which means they can recover from playing in the Champions League against Bayern Munich in midweek to face Saints.

One thing is for sure, if City were ever complacent when facing Saints in the past, there is little chance of that tomorrow, as they know they will be in for a tough match.

“They take this game very seriously, they know that we are strong,” insisted Koeman.

“It’s one of the qualities is the organisation in the team and if you don’t have that organisation it’s not possible to receive only six goals in 12 games.

“They know for sure they have to be good to win against us and the challenge for us is to beat a good team in the Premier League.

“We have the supporters at our back and that will be important for Sunday.”

Naturally so much of the focus ahead of the City game is on Sergio Aguero.

The Argentinian striker has dragged his side along almost single handily at times in recent weeks.

He has scored 17 goals already this season, including a hat-trick against Bayern.

Saints boast the meanest defence in English football, and are set to come up against possibly the best striker in the world.

Koeman smiled: “That’s the nicest part of football sometimes that you can’t do everything to stop a player because he’s one of the best player, in my opinion, who makes in the last few weeks the difference between winning and not winning for City.

“Of course they have a strong squad and strong team but the last few games Aguero has been scoring and creating, and creating opportunities by himself.

“We have a strong defence and it’s a nice challenge for our defenders to keep the zero behind this Sunday.

“You can’t give them one second no attention, you need that attention during 90-95 minutes and that’s a great challenge to our defenders.”

Koeman has compared Aguero with his old Barcelona teammate, and Brazilian great, Romario, but doesn’t believe City are over reliant on him.

“I think that the best player to compare to Aguero is Romario,” reflected the Saints manager.

“I played with him but sometimes you think he is sleeping and in one split second he is scoring and that’s a big quality because that means a lot of concentration for the defender.

“He’s always fast, he’s always on the edge of offside and that’s his best quality.

“City is a strong team and always big teams have individual qualities and these are players who make and win games by themselves because of that individual quality they have.

“In our team organisation we are as strong as City but these kind of players are sometimes more difficult.”

Koeman is hoping that being at home might just provide the edge for his side, who he is adamant will not change their style just because they are facing some massive teams over the next nine days.

“Important (being at home) because it’s an important part of football but the most important is that we keep our style of playing not depending on the opponent,” he said.

“We like to do at home because if you play your own style that you train during the week then the chance to be successful is much higher than normally.”