Ronald Koeman believes Saints and Swansea are setting an example in the right way to deal with the Premier League outside of being one of the established big clubs.

Both clubs, who meet at St Mary’s on Saturday, have been punching above their weight, playing attractive football and securing positive results over the past few years despite selling some star names.

Koeman has said in the past that he thinks it is near impossible for clubs of this size to really expect to compete with the likes of Man United and Chelsea over a long season, but Swansea and Saints are highly regarded by many as the best of the rest when it comes to their all-round approach.

Koeman said: “Like we but also Swansea in my opinion is an example how you have to do the football business.

“Very good coach and manager, they try to play attractive football.

“They lost some good players, signed some other good ones and still fighting for a high position on the table.

“We can compare Swansea to our team and that’s maybe the reason it’s a difficult game for both teams.

“Look back at last season and we won in Swansea and they won here.

“It’s close and it’s detail that makes the difference this Saturday.”

Koeman is hoping Saints can produce a complete performance in the league and use their 6-0 Capital One Cup victory over MK Dons as a springboard for success over Swansea, managed by former Saints defender Garry Monk.

They started superbly against Man United last weekend, but faded as they were beaten.

“That’s true, 30 or 35 minutes is not enough to win, not against Man United, not against Swansea. You need more time in the game on your level and you can’t do the mistake we did because you can’t win,” reflected Koeman.

“Look back to the first half Man United and yesterday we are in a good way now to show and to win the game we need to win to come more up in the table.”