Saints know they must make the most of tomorrow’s crunch St Mary’s clash with Burnley to give themselves some breathing space ahead of a nightmare run of fixtures.

Though the team are comfortably midtable with 13 points from their first 10 matches, with the majority of games having been at home and only one top six side faced there is no room to rest easy.

After the upcoming international break Saints enter a run of fixtures that sees them take on all of the Premier League’s top six before the turn of the year, with five of those matches away from home.

Saints know that if they can beat Burnley then they have the chance to approach those games in a more relaxed manner, playing as the underdogs against the division’s big guns, and that might just help them pull off a few shocks.

But should they fail to defeat Burnley and suddenly feel they have to get points against the top dogs to stop a potential slide down a very closely fought table, it could be much harder.

When asked if this was a pressure match, Saints boss Mauricio Pellegrino said: “This game is really important for us because we need to keep going and get points. We have in the last three games and it’s another opportunity to keep going and convert this performance into points.

“In the future we will play against the biggest teams in the Premier League but we don’t know.

“I am really happy about that because for me as a manager to play against the biggest teams is something to enjoy.

“I would like to see from my players something like against Man U when we play really well and you don’t know in football. It is an opportunity to show how we are and we have to show every single week.”

Given the way the fixture list is this season, Saints always knew they would ideally like a fast start to set themselves up for a good year.

It has been a bit more up and down than Pellegrino would have liked, but he insists their fate remains very much in their own hands, no matter how hard the upcoming run appears.

“I think we deserve to have more points, minimum two or three points, but the reality is we have 13 points and we have to keep going,” he insisted.

“Nothing changes if we have two or three points more or two or three points less. We have to try and improve and win games.

“The stats and the figures are important at the end of the season, but obviously to be honest I would like to have more points.”