Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond believes that they are in their best position, both on and off the field, for several years after securing another impressive victory.

The Greater Manchester outfit defeated defending Premiership champions Saracens 24-18 to move into the top-four of the league.

Sam James and Denny Solomona touched down while Rob Du Preez added 14 points from the tee as they sealed their third successive domestic triumph.

Sale have also been boosted by a number of players committing to the club and Diamond is pleased with how everything is taking shape.

"We've got lads like the Currys and the (Josh) Beaumont's of the world, as well as Sam and Luke James and Arron Reed, and then you've got imports such as Jono (Ross), Faf (De Klerk) and James O'Connor, who are brilliant," he said.

"All of them want to stay, all of them have a good time and all of them want to win something for Sale. We've put a stamp on it and I carry the flag for the business, and these lads are 100 per cent behind what we're doing.

"The vision is there. With the strides we're making, we've got to be a regular top European competitor and then push for the top-four.

"It's taken sides a long time to do it, such as Saracens and Exeter, so it doesn't happen overnight. We know where we're going with it and with a bit of luck, good recruitment and attitude, it counts for a lot. We're nearly there with that."

"We've been playing well," he added. "After the first six games, we got (Chris) Ashton and Faf back, while Rob Du Preez came in, and we've got some resemblance of organisation, away from home and at home, and that's been shown."

Meanwhile, Sarries' director of rugby Mark McCall was disappointed with their errors as they succumbed for just the second time this season.

"A lot of our fundamentals were really poor," McCall admitted. "In the first half we lost four restart receptions and were a bit sloppy defensively, and in the second half it was all about set-piece.

"We lost four line-outs in their 22, gave away a number of scrum penalties, got ourselves behind and didn't react well to some of the setbacks we faced. We then played horrible catch-up rugby towards the end.

"We were playing against a good team who were really good tonight and very physical around the breakdown area, but it was the fundamentals which let us down."