Premier League Weekend Review: Serial Winner Koeman has the belief to upset the odds

A winner . . . Ronald Koeman (centre) as Ruud Gullit lifts the 1988 European Championship trophy

Southampton's win at Old Trafford puts them firmly in contention to earn a Champions League place. Ralph Ellis looks at the reasons why they might just manage to do it...

It's worth taking a few moments to run through the back story of Ronald Koeman to remind yourself that the guy is a serial winner.

When the 51-year-old Dutchman was appointed Southampton manager in the summer I'm not sure anybody really did that. The reaction of most people - and I was guilty of it myself - was just to think that Saints had employed another foreign boss, a man who wouldn't know the Premier League, and would face a struggle with a club that had sold all its biggest stars.

So, six months later, here's the Koeman record as a reminder of what we should have realised then: Perhaps start with nine League titles as a player in Holland and Spain, throw in two European Cup winners medals, and top scorer in the 1993-4 Champions League campaign. Add a European Championship medal with Holland in 1988 - and twice Dutch player of the year at a time when his rivals for that honour included Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten.

That's before we even start on a management career that has seen him win a domestic double for Ajax, the Dutch League title with PSV, the Copa del Rey for Valencia and the Portuguese Cup with Benfica. He's been a success everywhere, with the only blip on the record getting the sack at AZ Alkmaar after just 16 games so you can't even know there how it might have turned out with a bit of time on his side.

When you take in that track record, it's suddenly not such a surprise that Koeman is doing what he's doing at St Mary's. We're talking about a man with total belief in his own ability.

From the first few weeks of the campaign he'd been talking about finishing in the top four. Insisting it was possible. Not afraid to aim for the stars with the idea that if he missed, at least he'd still be on the moon.

Betfair's markets still expect him to crash land back on earth, though. Southampton are 2.6413/8 to finish in the top four, while Arsenal, three points behind them, are 1.548/15. Manchester United, beaten by Koeman's team yesterday without getting a shot on target, are 1.511/2.

There are reasons to believe it is worth backing Saints at that price. Koeman's organisation has given them the meanest defence in the League with just 15 goals conceded. In Victor Wanyama and Morgan Schneiderlin they have as effective a midfield as anybody, and up front Graziano Pelle has proved he can both score goals and bring others into play.

He gives players confidence, and improves them. Nathaniel Clyne looks like he could be England's regular right back for years, while Ryan Bertrand has rediscovered the quality which once made him look like Ashley Cole's obvious successor at Chelsea. Other youngsters like James Ward-Prowse have learned they have nothing to fear against the Premier League's big names.

Of course there is a long way to go and Southampton are fighting history which says that the so-called "smaller clubs" cannot barge their way into the Champions League party.

But then Koeman would see it a different way. He'd rather look at his own history - and when you do that you wonder why shouldn't he add another major achievement to an already glittering CV?