Saints have jumped to 7th in the full Premier League table, but the news is better on the current form version.

Although as they say the league table never lies, it can in fact be distorted by a period of good or bad form far back in a season, although this season is only 11 games old, Saints form in the last 6 games is better than that in the first 5.

In the opening 5 games of the season, Saints gained only 6 points, it remains on those 6 points if we overlap into the 6th game of the season which was the defeat to Manchester United. This meant that in the first 5 games we averaged 1.2 points per game, multiply that by 38 and it would have seen us on 45 points come the end of the season, enough to secure a solid mid table place but not enough for our aspirations these days .

As the table below shows, after the win against Bournemouth we are now 3rd in the current form table having gained 11 points from our last 6 games, with only North London duo Spurs and Arsenal having bettered that.

This gives us an average of 1.83 per game, which if multiplied by 32 would give us 64 points if we keep up this average for the remainder of the season, last term that would have been enough to get us the 5th place occupied by Tottenham Hotspur.

What it does show though is that we are starting to find our form going forward and given our pedigree over the past two seasons that bodes well for another attempt at forcing our way into the top six.

Now is the time when the teams who had had a flash of form at the start of the season start to fade away and other start to find theirs, as we look to try and get a top six finish we perhaps have a greater chance than last season of doing so in that Chelsea with every defeat are falling off the pace and although they have undoubted class, they will soon have a gap that will be very difficult to close unless they start winning soon.

Likewise Liverpool, they have an average squad at present and although Jurgen Klopp will undoubtedly make them a force next season, he may find it hard this even with a decent January transfer window,

That gives us a great opportunity to break into the top six, I think we will find it hard to finish ahead of Manchester City, Arsenal or Manchester United, but we can certainly compete with Leicester, West Ham, Spurs and the aforementioned Liverpool & Chelsea as it stands.

1 Arsenal 6 5 0 1 3 1 16 5 +11 15 2.50 L W W W W W
2 Tottenham 6 4 2 0 3 1 13 4 +9 14 2.33 W W W D D W
3 Southampton 6 3 2 1 1 0 13 8 +5 11 1.83 L W W D D W
4 Manchester Utd 6 3 2 1 4 3 9 5 +4 11 1.83 W W L W D D
5 West Ham Utd 6 3 2 1 0 1 11 9 +2 11 1.83 W D D W W L
6 Stoke City 6 3 2 1 3 2 6 5 +1 11 1.83 D W W W L D
7 Leicester City 6 3 2 1 1 0 12 12 0 11 1.83 D L W D W W
8 Manchester City 6 3 1 2 1 1 15 9 +6 10 1.67 L L W W D W
9 Liverpool 6 2 4 0 1 1 9 6 +3 10 1.67 D W D D D W
10 Watford 6 3 1 2 2 2 7 6 +1 10 1.67W L D L W W
11 West Brom Alb 6 3 0 3 3 1 7 8 -1 9 1.50 W L L W W L
12 Everton 6 2 2 2 1 2 11 10 +1 8 1.33 D W D L L W
13 Chelsea 6 2 1 3 2 0 9 10 -1 7 1.17 W D L W L L
14 Crystal Palace 6 2 1 3 3 3 4 5 -1 7 1.17 L W W L L D
15 Newcastle Utd 6 1 2 3 1 2 10 15 -5 5 0.83 L D L W L D
16 Swansea City 6 1 2 3 1 3 5 10 -5 5 0.83 D L D L W L
17 Sunderland 6 1 1 4 1 3 7 14 -7 4 0.67 L L D L W L
18 Bournemouth 6 1 1 4 1 1 6 15 -9 4 0.67 W L D L L L
19 Norwich City 6 0 2 4 0 1 7 14 -7 2 0.33 D D L L L L
20 Aston Villa 6 0 0 6 0 3 5 12 -7 0 0.00 L L L L L L

Photo: Action Images via Reuters