Stephens confident Saints can catch Toffees

Southampton might have finished 15 points behind Everton last season but Jack Stephens is aiming to close that gap and leapfrog the Toffees into seventh next term.

Everton were caught in something of a no-man’s land by the end of the Premier League campaign, never truly challenging the top six – they finished eight points behind Manchester United in sixth – but comfortably clear of the eighth-placed Saints.

With the spending power of the league’s big sextet, Stephens is realistic about how high Southampton can climb next year.

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But the 23-year-old defender – who impressed in the second half of the campaign – insists that catching the Toffees is an achievable goal.

“You look at the games like Stoke, Hull at home, West Ham, they’re the type of games we want to be winning to catch Everton,” said Stephens.

“There’s not a massive gap between us and Everton, they’ve just been fairly consistent over the season. They’ve not got anywhere near the top six either.

“They’re firmly in seventh, but there’s not a massive gap. It’s just a few tweaks here and there and we’ll bridge the gap.

“If you look at some of results that we’ve had we could have had more points and be closer to Everton and maybe above them.

“Apart from Everton, this league’s very difficult when the top six perform so well and spend so much, it’s difficult to break that.”