Southampton give Manchester United reason to be fearful despite helping hand

The pressure is on.

Manchester United's return from the winter break has not exactly gone to plan. All the momentum they had started to build prior to the fortnight gap in action, with wins over Brentford and West Ham, has completely evaporated.

Firstly, United's already slender chances of ending their five-year trophy drought were reduced even further as they were knocked out of the FA Cup on penalties by the Championship's Middlesbrough.

Then, with a big response needed, United's old frailties in character once again bore their ugly head as they could only muster a draw against lowly Burnley.

Both results may well be caveated by poor refereeing decisions and missed sitters and there were certainly some promising signs in the games, especially the attacking displays in the opening 45 minutes of each, but ultimately that doesn't matter.

Only results do. And United need results.

The only way this week could have gone much worse for United is if Burnley took another one of their chances in their period of control and dealt a devastating blow by winning at Turf Moor.

Instead, Ralf Rangnick's side came away with a point, which is better than none, but has still made the quest to finish in the top four more difficult.

With the Champions League now United's only chance of winning a piece of silverware this season, and that seems very unlikely at best, qualifying for next year's edition of the competition is the only minor piece of success they can achieve.

Failure to do so would be catastrophic, especially in their summer recruitment plans for not only players but a new permanent manager as well.

It's pivotal United get back to winning ways on Saturday but that is much easier said than done with Southampton coming to Old