Sunderland winger Wahbi Khazri bullish on survival chances

Sunderland winger Wahbi Khazri is confident of Premier League survival if his side finishes the season with the same level of performance that they showed against Manchester United last month.

The Black Cats shocked the Red Devils on February 13 with a 2-1 win at the Stadium of Light. Khazri opened the scoring before Anthony Martial pulled a goal back just before half-time.

An own goal from goalkeeper David de Gea gave Sunderland all three points and Khazri is adamant that they need to keep producing similar performances in their remaining seven games.

Sam Allardyce’s men have back-to-back home games coming up against West Bromwich Albion and Leicester City and two positive results could go a long way in helping them stay up.

They still need to take on Norwich, Arsenal, Stoke, Chelsea, Everton and Watford but Khazri believes they can preserve their Premier League status if they can repeat the display that saw them overcome Louis van Gaal’s men.

He told the the Northern Echo: “We need to reach that level (from the Manchester United game) and fight hard. If all of us can do that, we can definitely win games, but we need to repeat performances like that.

“We dropped a few points in February and March – I’m thinking of the Southampton and Newcastle games when we conceded late on – but I think we can take positives from that, and if we continue to work hard until the end of the season, there is no doubt that we can stay in the Premier League.”