Saints have made a great start to the season, but for all their exploits they still stand only sixth in the table, highlighting just how hard it is to break into the upper echelons of the Premier League.
There isn't a Saints fan alive who could be disappointed about the start we have made to the 2013/14 season, if you had asked any one of us before a ball was kicked whether we would have been happy with 11 points out of our first 6 games and the answer would have been unanimous.
Back in the summer there had been a lot of talk about moving on to that next level and even of challenging for a Champions League spot and Saints current league position after such a great start highlights just what a tough proposition getting into the Champions League spots actually is, indeed as it stands at the moment Saints aren't even in a Europa League spot.
Their are no surprises ahead of us either, all five clubs are well established top 7 sides, in fact when you consider that the two Manchester clubs are yet to hit top form, then the job ahead looks even harder, getting to sixth spot will actually be a doddle compared to keeping ourselves there over the next few months.
This is not to be negative, but to perhaps put things in perspective and consider just what success will be over the coming months, although it would be nice, I cant see Manchester United or City staying behind us for that long, they have the squads to start winning games and to be blunt if they aren't they will spend big in January.
I therefore consider that success for Saints will be to finish 8th, yes above that would be nice and could well be achievable, but I wouldn't put much money on it at this point in time.
If we can end the season in 8th that will be a great achievement for the club, it will be a step forward and will enable us to start trying to attract higher calibre players, its a lot easy to do so when you can show them a league table with you sat in 8th than it is in 14th, we have to accept that realistically there are 7 clubs who are ahead of us in terms of quality of squad, experience and where they are now in terms of development, Everton for instance who as I see as a natural achievable target to overtake come the end of the season have also made a good start and their starting position at the start of the season in terms of the aforementioned quality of squad etc is ahead of us.
So our real task this season now is to keep ahead of the chasing pack, make sure that it is Saints who are the Club who can achieve 8th this season and not the likes of Swansea & West Brom as it was last, if we can do that then you never know we might just cause a shock and haul Everton back and finish 7th, then next season with good key signings we will be in a better position than we were at the start of the season and a top 6 finish could be within our realistic aims.
Its fine to talk about next levels and European qualification, but we also have to consider how far we have to go to achieve that aim and just how well embedded the squads of the top 7 clubs actually are.
So as I mentioned in the headline, the fact that we have had this start and are still only sixth, a position that under normal circumstances wont even get us into the Europa league, actually highlights just how good the clubs at the top of this league are and how hard it will be to finish above them on a regular basis, you can do all the right things as a club, but you cant build a quality squad overnight, Saints have taken some great steps forward already this season, they can take more, but 8th in the league in the final table should be viewed as success and not disappointment, if we do things properly there will be plenty of seasons to come where perhaps 8th is viewed as disappointing.