Southampton's decision to keep faith with Ralph Hasenhuttl might just be the season's wisest piece of executive inaction.

Saturday's victory at Leicester was their sixth in 10 league matches and provided a degree of revenge for the chastening 9-0 home defeat inflicted on them by the same opponents in October.

Although less memorable, Southampton's loss against Everton at St Mary's two games later - when they managed just four shots in 90 minutes - saw them bottom out in 19th, three points from safety.

Their resurgence since that dismal day has been outstanding and not caused by a lenient run of fixtures either: Southampton's rise has included a draw at Arsenal, away wins at Chelsea and Leicester and a 1-0 success against Tottenham at St Mary's.

So how have they managed it and what are the tactical keys behind their improvement?

The numbers show their improvement has substance - and is overdue

Some teams are in the relegation places because they are plain dysfunctional, but every season a team or two who should be safely ensconced in mid-table find themselves down there due to a combination of misfortune and negative variance. A list of 10 or more clubs are vulnerable to this, especially during the small sample size of a campaign yet to reach Christmas.