Ward-Prowse and Saints set sights on top seven

A top-seven finish remains the target for Southampton, and James Ward-Prowse is confident the Saints are on the march.

The academy product assisted Sofiane Boufal’s superb winner against Middlesbrough last weekend that saw Claude Puel’s side climb back into the top half of the Premier League table.

And with a busy Christmas period coming up, Ward-Prowse is confident his side have halted a slide that had seen them only win one of their previous six games in the league.

“It’s a big week. We’ve got a bit of a break after the Bournemouth game [on Sunday] so it is important that we maximise the points so that it puts us in a great position going into the Christmas period,” Ward-Prowse said.

(Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)

“We’ve got a lot of games coming up and we’ve got to make sure that game by game we are ready and we want to be looking up at the top seven to make sure that we’re in those positions come the end of the season.

“These are the games that we see ourselves and are confident of winning so we have to make sure that obviously we go there to work hard and put in a good shift to get the win.”