By James McManus
Sunderland defender Danny Rose believes the side need to get back to winning ways as quickly as possible if they are to stop looking nervously over their shoulders at the relegation zone.
Martin O’Neill’s side have been in some fine recent form, taking 16 points from their last nine league games to put breathing space between themselves in 12th and the drop zone below them.
However, despite boasting a comfortable eight-point gap at the moment, after defeat last time out against Reading courtesy of a Jimmy Kebe double, Rose has urged his team-mates to focus their efforts on ensuring the club’s top flight survival, starting with Saturday’s home encounter with Arsenal.
“We’ve got to think back to what we were doing a few games ago when we were picking up wins like Wigan away and West Ham at home and try to put Arsenal under a lot of pressure, Rose told reporters.
“We had a great run with five wins out of eight games.
“Teams have had their run of luck where they picked up points – Norwich and West Ham had great starts to the season. But now they’ve hit a brick wall and struggled to pick up points.
“We’ve lost against Reading and we’ve got a hard game against Arsenal where we’ve got to put it right.
“After that, we don’t play for two weeks so everyone has to work hard for each other against Arsenal.
The 22-year-old, comfortable at both left-back and in midfield, is currently on loan from Arsenal’s north London rivals Tottenham, and he believes that having won just two of their last six league outings, that now could be a good time to face Arsene Wenger’s side.
He added: “From a personal point of view I’m looking forward to the game, but at the same time, it’s not going to be easy.
“Arsenal are having a stop-start season with their results, but they won last weekend and they’re four points off fourth now.
“They’ll be coming up here wanting to win the game.”
