Sunderland defender Lamine Kone is confident that he and the other January signings will be key in helping the club avoid relegation from the Premier League.

The Black Cats, 1.40 to be relegated, are currently 18th in the league table and two points away from safety. Sam Allardyce’s men have drawn their last three games to give themselves a chance of avoiding the drop this season.

Sunderland do have a game in hand on 17th-placed Norwich but they only have eight matches to prove they are good enough to stay in the top flight.

They face West Brom and Leicester in their next two matches but Kone is adamant the club’s latest signings will help them survive.

He joined the club in January for £5million from Lorient and he believes the like of Wahbi Khazri and Jan Kirchoff will lift them out of the bottom three.

He told the club’s official website: “I’m settling in very, very well.

“There were a few French players here when I arrived which has really helped me so I feel very good here, and my family are very happy here too which is a bonus. I think if you look at recent months we did pretty good and there were a lot of positives in the performances.

“Myself and Wahbi have come in and offered something extra to the team, him in attack and me in defence, and with the other players and their quality in the team we have to go and do better.”