History Books Give United Hope

With their lowest-ever Premier League points total after 23 games and a five-point gap to Tottenham in fourth place, the outlook looks bleak for Manchester United.

However, a look at previous seasons shows that teams have recovered from bigger gaps at the end of January to finish in the Champions League places.

Leeds were even further behind the top four in 1998/99 but won seven games in a row to ensure they comfortably finished in fourth place in May.

And they repeated the feat again under David O'Leary in 2000/01 in even more impressive style as they surged up from 10th at the end of January to finish in the final Champions League place.

Alongside a run to the semi-finals of the Champions League, Leeds won nine of their last 11 league games to end the season two points above Ipswich Town.

Arsenal have also closed the gap on a few occasions in the final months of the season to finish in fourth place or better.

In 2011/12 they were six points off the top four at the end of January but ended in third place, helped by a run of nine wins from 10 matches, including a 7-1 victory over Blackburn and a 5-2 win against Spurs.

The Gunners climbed even further in 1997/98 as they went onto win the title after being four points outside the Champions League places at the end of January.

They made up a five-point gap in 2008/09 to qualify for the Champions League while, most recently, in 2012/13 they recovered from four points behind to finish fourth.

Credit: Skysports.com