Southampton finished eighth in the Premier League last season and faced a summer in which they lost five starters and their manager.

But Saints kept its top striker, best defender and their captain while having a payroll estimated to be roughly a third of the front-runners.

The club is currently second in the Premier League.

“This summer was as uncomfortable as I’ve ever been as a leader,” said Ralph Krueger, the club’s chairman. “There is not a person inside this club that will honestly tell you they didn’t have a day, or a lot of days, where they weren’t afraid or that it wasn’t difficult. It was. It absolutely was. But we stuck with our plan. And it is working.”

The Southampton Way, as it is known, revolves around “breaking mythologies,” Reed said. The top priority for the club remains developing talent, something its academy had done historically — Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all came out of Southampton’s youth teams — but with a greater focus and purpose.

The on-field tactics of manager Ronald Koeman match Southampton's larger off-field model.

“We keep the way of playing the same, whether we play away or at home, whether against Liverpool or Manchester City,” Koeman said. “It doesn’t matter. We are who we are.”

Brendan Rodgers remains confident that Liverpool is capable of finishing the Premier League season in the top-4.

"I have an inherent belief that we can still make the top four - absolutely," he told reporters. "I know what we are all capable of here. For whatever reason, it hasn't happened for us yet but I said to the players the other night our standards will go up after the game against Ludogorets [a 2-2 draw].

"Thankfully no matter how we have been, we are still within touching distance and that is the initial aim. Fourth and then moving forward. If that is the aim - and we are only five points off it - then that gives me belief we have every chance of doing it."

Carlos Vela had a hat-trick in the home game of Real Sociedad under David Moyes.

“We’ve had a special talent in Carlos tonight," said Moyes. "Without a doubt, he was a player that made the difference throughout and had a great game. His performance was decisive and its helped us get the win here.”

José Mourinho criticized the idea of individual awards such as the Ballon d'Or in a team game. 

"This kind of trophy is not good for football," said Mourinho. "This is why I don't care about it. Sometimes it looks like we are looking for stars, we are looking for some people to be more important than others.

"And this is not the culture we want in this club. I don't care about it. But it's there. It's there as a consequence of the good work the team is doing. And, if they feel that, OK. It's good for them.

"But the mentality here is not to be worried about that. Even less being obsessed with that. When I see these two names, Fabregas and [Eden] Hazard, I think clearly they don't think about it. They think about the team, about playing well and trying to win matches."

Cesc Fabregas has made a remarkable impact for Chelsea as a deep laying playmaker this season after being used in a multitude of roles at Barcelona.

“I feel that right now I am playing some of the best football of my career,” Fabregas said. “I am in my best position, 100 per cent. I feel more in control of the game, I touch the ball all the time, I feel happy, I go and get the ball from here, from there, I can go forward, Oscar drops deep. I feel free, I feel confident, I feel in control and that’s what I like the most in football.

“Sometimes, in the last three or four years in the national team and Barcelona, I was playing like a No 9. I mean, I have to do it for the team and I enjoy, and it’s all good. But, here, where I am playing today, it’s where I enjoy my football the most.”

Fabregas also discussed the need to put substance over style, something that may not have been the case at Arsenal but is certainly one of Mourinho’s tenets.

“Potentially, this team can be very, very good but we have to win trophies,” Fabregas said. “I always said it, no one remembers if there was a great, great team and you don’t win. We have to win and that will say a lot from us. People will judge it how they want to judge it. The most important thing is to keep it going and at the end of the season we can talk.

“I didn’t come here to just play well and that’s it. I came here to win trophies and if I could play well and enjoy myself, the better. There will be games I cannot enjoy myself because other teams will approach games differently. But the most important thing for me is we know what we are doing, we know when we defend, when we have to attack, when we slow the pace, go quicker. I think right now, we are doing that very, very well.”

Chelsea had a highly impressive 5-0 win at Schalke in the Champions League on Tuesday, which was the best away performance José Mourinho has ever seen from his club.

"The players are very serious," Mourinho said. "Everything they do with big focus and ambition, but at the same time with this extra component which is quite something new in Chelsea football: this happiness, this flair, this beauty.

"Sometimes people who don't understand a lot about football try to put a stamp on a manager: this manager is this, this manager is that. The good ones adapt to reality.

"In this moment this team is completely different to my team in 2004-08. Completely different. Different players. Different profile. So we play a different football.

"As I was saying, this team, to be so good or better than other Chelsea teams? This team needs to win. At this moment: zero titles. We have to transform the quality of our game into results, which we are getting now. But we have to try and win things so this team goes down in Chelsea's history as a brilliant team who won something."

With Luka Modric out for an extended period, Carlo Ancelotti is interested in trying Isco in Real Madrid's midfield alongside Toni Kroos.

“Isco is another option for midfield. I’d like to try him out there. The only thing I’m worried about is the defensive aspect but he’s an option just like Khedira and Illarramendi.

“I’d really like to try him out because that gives us much more quality. He did very well on defense when he was on the left side and I think he can do it in midfield too. Isco is really in-form and I’m sure he will continue to be.

“(Vicente) Del Bosque said he plays too artistically? There’s no such thing as a perfect player and I think what Del Bosque said was true but, of course, he needs to bring out his quality. I don’t think that will affect him. He’s very good, he has a lot of character and he will accept the criticism.  Sometimes it’s good to slow down the younger players.”

Mesut Özil believes Arsene Wenger can help him become a better player.

“He [Wenger] knows what he wants and I know he can bring me a step forward; he trusts me in that way and I trust him, completely,” Ozil told Esquire.

“I’m proud to be part of this team.”

Ozil also maintains he is not affected by criticism from the media.

“I’ve been in this business so long now. I’ve been a professional since I was 16, 17,” he said.

“I don’t care what the press thinks about me as football changes from day to day. You can play well one day and badly the next. I’m used to it.”

Joachim Löw has said that Spain has been a footballing reference for Germany since their ascent in 2008.

“On the one hand, I’m excited that we have come to Spain because we’re going to be playing against a technically gifted team. But on the other hand, it’s unfortunate that some good players will be missing for both teams for this prestigious game. It’s also the chance to find out a few more things that we can take into next year. I expect a good performance and the players to be ready mentally as I will be judging every single one of them.

“To be honest, when I started, I had watched a lot of Spanish football, with Jürgen Klinsmann too. I shadowed a club manager in Spain and I found it impressive that you could almost lay a stencil over the pitch and there was a disciplined approach. We have definitely been influenced by Spain’s game, but we have also tried to apply our own style.

“Obviously, it wouldn’t be good to end the year with a loss. But it certainly won’t play a role next year or in at the EUROs in 2016. If you draw 2-2 with Cameroon in May, it doesn’t affect the team for weeks. I hope that we can have a good preparation for the tournament in 2015, qualify and the players can remain injury free.

“Of course, it would be nice to play in Barcelona or Madrid. I think that Spain choose to play in smaller cities more often than not and that’s completely fine.”

Toni Kroos joined Real Madrid because he was told he would play a central role on the club.

Kroos joined Carlo Ancelotti's team on a €25 million deal from Bayern Munich.

"It was important that I could be sure from the first day that the coach trusted me," Kroos told Suddeutsche Zeitung. "Ancelotti told me that he needed me and he has given me a central role in the team.

"He told me during a telephone conversation that I could make Real Madrid better.

"Ancelotti wanted a little bit more balance in the team’s play, a little bit more control. He told me that he wanted to further improve our play, that he wanted to change it, with the intention of having more phases with possession of the ball. And therefore, he told me that he needed me.

"I play as a midfielder, and ten yards further back than I did at Bayern; in reality, I am a ‘six’. The offensive game is not forgotten, but for now we can say that I am a No.6.

"Pep Guardiola told me at the beginning, ‘Toni, the good players move around during their career and each time further back.’ With Ancelotti I could follow that same path."