Rival boss provides prediction over Leeds United points total needed to stay up and safety warning

Hasenhuttl's side are 15th in the Premier League table, six points clear of both fifth-bottom Burnley and fourth-bottom Leeds having already worked their way up to the 40-point marker which is usually regarded as enough to stay up..

However, the Saints only have three games left and Hasenhuttl believes the tally required to stay in the division could well be higher than in previous years.

Asked if he felt his side were safe as Burnley, Leeds and third-bottom Everton scrap it out to avoid finishing 18th, Hasenhuttl said as quoted by Hampshire Live: “I think this season it can definitely be that you need 40 or maybe more points.

"This is possible for the first time in a long time.

"I don't know if all three teams down there will pick up more points than we have, or we [can get] until the end of the season. I'm not sure.

"But it’s not about having the feeling of being safe, we have a chance for a top ten position, this is the direction we are looking, to be honest.

"We have a game now against Brentford and we want to do it better than the last game against Crystal Palace, especially in the finish, in the end, and this would then maybe give us the chance to end up higher in the table.”

Southampton are away at 14th-placed Brentford this weekend for a 3pm kick-off on Saturday afternoon and both sides are on 40 points with three games left apiece.

The Saints are then at home to title-chasing Liverpool on Thursday, May 17 before visiting Leicester City on the final day.

Brentford - who Leeds visit on the final day - play Everton ay Goodison Park in their penultimate game.

Assessing the importance of his side's game against the Bees, Hasenhuttl admitted: "We have, after this, a one and a half week break with no game, and then, maybe at the moment, we play the best team in the world and it is not so easy.

"But there are no gifts and we are looking at every game for trying to take as many points as possible."