RALPH Hasenhuttl insists Saints can "cause everybody problems" as he outlined the club's first target this season as being to reach the fabled 40-point mark.

Only three times in the Premier League's 30-year history has a club suffered relegation having reached 40 points or more.

The last of those came in the 2002-03 campaign, when West Ham United slipped through the trapdoor on 42 points. Bolton Wanderers and Sunderland have also suffered the same fate, during the 1990s.

Since, reaching 40 points has always been enough to stay in the top flight, something Hasenhuttl is keen to reach again this time around.

Saints took to 11 their tally of points from their opening 11 fixtures, with victory at Bournemouth on Wednesday night.

In Hasenhuttl's three full seasons in charge, Saints have totalled 52, 43 and 40 points respectively.

Asked how crucial it was for Saints to beat Gary O'Neil's Cherries ahead of Premier League leaders Arsenal visiting St Mary's on Sunday, Hasenhuttl said: "Every game when you win is crucial for the belief and for the self-confidence and for us to stay in this fantastic league.

"For us in the last years it was always a fight for every point, every weekend. We can never go into a weekend and say 'now we are the favourites and we have to take these points'.

"This is our situation in the Premier League since we are here. I think it is a big achievement we are consistently, for 10 years, in this league and always managed to have nothing to do with relegation.

"Like in the last four years, we have never really been in relegation struggles. For us, at the moment, the first goal we always have every year is to come as quick as possible to 40 points.

"Therefore, you have to get points from every team you play against.

"No matter how good they are, no matter how high they are flying, no matter how long they are unbeaten. We have to believe in us and be clear that we can, on a good day, cause everybody problems."

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