Ralph Hasenhuttl is urging Saints to see their upcoming make or break fixture schedule as an opportunity to embrace rather than something to fear.

Saints went into the latest international break with a sinking feeling after a home loss to Everton which left them rooted in the bottom three.

They travel to struggling Arsenal tomorrow before facing five teams in the bottom half of the table before Christmas.

It would appear to be the perfect chance for Saints to get their season back on track but that also comes with a lot of added pressure.

However, Hasenhuttl is taking a positive approach with his team in the hope of securing some important wins.

He said: “We try to create an atmosphere where we concentrate on our work, our behaviours, our automatism, because this is the only thing we can do. We cannot think about any other things about the schedule or the table.

“It is how it is and we must look at our game and be very critical over what is good at the moment and what is not so good.

“We have some periods where we show we invest a lot and get something and other periods not and we must be more convinced about what made us strong and what was the part that was different to the other teams and lifts us above the other teams to win games.

“This was the main topic to find this back.”

Saints have really suffered at St Mary’s this season having taken just one point from their six home Premier League fixtures so far.

Therefore, coming out of the break and into an away fixture could well suit them, especially given Arsenal and their manager Unai Emery are under significant pressure after a shaky start to their campaign.

“I think the better games in the season we played away but finally it doesn’t matter where you take the points, you have to take them,” admitted Hasenhuttl.

“After the last international break we went to Wolves and we made a good start in the next period.

“We know that it is important for us to take points and to believe in what we are doing.

“It is an away game with 3,000 fans following and the tickets gone so they are still behind us and helping us and the support at away games was always fantastic.”