Ronald Koeman has confessed even he is surprised by how quickly his new Saints stars have settled into life at St Mary’s.

He also believes the club may well have an even better squad than last season’s record-equalling season.

Saints hammered Newcastle 4-0 to make it back-to-back wins and, at the final whistle on Saturday afternoon, see a league table which had them in the top four.

It’s a far cry from the apparent doom and gloom of the early summer months when former boss Mauricio Pochettino and a host of star players left the club.

Koeman has overseen a total overhaul in the playing staff – making eight signings – and is delighted with the results thus far.

“A little bit surprised (how quickly it has come together) because normally after so much change you need time but time in football is sometimes not done,” said Koeman.

“It’s not an excuse for me as the manager because we have good players and good players understand very fast.

“I was very proud how we started because that was much different to how we started against West Brom in the first home match.

“We started very fast. We spoke about it before the match and the lads did it in a great way.”

Koeman was asked whether he feels the squad is possibly even stronger now than it was last season when the club finished a Premier League-best eighth.

Though initially seeming unsure, he conceded it possibly was.

“I can’t compare both teams after the changes we did because I wasn’t the manager last season,” he reflected.

“I am very happy with the squad that we have and we like to show that. We showed it in a very good way.

“With the last two signings – Toby Alderweireld and (Saido) Mane – we have a squad maybe more competitive than last season.

“But I don’t know that for sure because I wasn’t the manager last season.”

Despite all of that, and a resounding win, Koeman still wasn’t happy with everything.

“Not everything,” he insisted. “We did enough mistakes to develop ourselves and maybe a little bit of concentration after 2-0 and it went down in the last ten-15 minutes.

“We can play on a fantastic level and if we played very concentrated and good possession play as we did in the last ten-15 minutes away against West Ham and in the last ten minutes.

“If after 38 passes you score like that you can’t expect more from the lads.”