Sevilla coach Manolo Jimenez has challenged his players to turn their record-breaking run into something that will forever secure their places in club folklore.

Sunday's 4-0 drubbing of Athletic Bilbao means Sevilla have now gone 11 Primera Liga matches without defeat - breaking the run of 10 successive unbeaten games set jointly by the teams of Ramon Encinas (1947) and Juande Ramos (2006).

Jimenez does not want his players to settle for just that though, saying: "This record is nice but it doesn't mean much, we have to try and make the record impossible to be broken because this would say that we have done very well.

"This record is for everyone connected with the club."

The Andalusian club's last defeat came back in mid-April when they lost 4-1 at home to local rivals Almeria, who are Sevilla's next opponents following the international break.

Since that loss Sevilla have been in fantastic form, winning 10 and drawing three of their 13 Primera Liga and UEFA Cup matches, while they also boasted a record of eight wins and two draws from their 10 pre-season fixtures.

"This is the path to follow, we hope to continue in this fashion right to the end because we would like to see that we've done things well. But we know that the season is long, with many games and we have to be ready to battle in every match," said Jimenez on his club's website.

"We have to take it step by step. Now important players are going away (with their countries). We hope that they return fit and well and then we'll think only about the following game against Almeria."

Sevilla's victory over Athletic left them third in the standings on 14 points, two adrift of leading duo Valencia and Villarreal, but Jimenez gave short shrift to any title talk this early in the season.

"If we think we are going to win the league in the sixth, seventh or eighth week, we are crazy," he added.

"We have to take it bit by bit and be in the top four places at the end of the season."