Sbragia Focused On Beating Chelsea To Ensure Sunderland's Safety

The Black Cats boss is claiming that his own side's game on Sunday is the sole focus of his attention, not the club's relegation rivals...



Sunderland manager Ricky Sbragia, visibly shaken at the final whistle after last night's 3-1 defeat to Portsmouth at Fratton Park, is now switching his attention to Sunday's final game of the season against Chelsea.

The Mackems welcome the Blues to the Stadium of Light knowing that a victory will be enough to keep them safe, but also that they may need a little help from those sides facing their relegation rivals, Newcastle United and Hull City.

Newcastle, two points behind Sbragia's men, travel to Aston Villa, whilst Phil Brown, ironically a boyhood Sunderland fan, and his Hull City side welcome Manchester United to the KC Stadium.

Sbragia will not be paying any attention to events in East Yorkshire and the West Midlands though, as he seeks the victory that will guarantee the club's Premier League status for another season.

"It has come down to the final game of the campaign now, as I always felt it might, and we know that we have to go out against Chelsea this Sunday and put in a good performance.

"There's no point in us bemoaning our luck against Portsmouth. That's past and gone now.

"We have to look forward to the Chelsea game on Sunday and immediately begin planning for that."It is a difficult challenge for us and we're very much aware that we're still in it, in terms of the threat of relegation.

"But of all the clubs in danger of relegation, we're in the strongest position when it comes to our chances of staying up and we have to make sure that it remains that way at the final whistle on Sunday.

"I won't be asking for updates and I won't be listening out for their [Hull and Newcastle] scores. I'm sure the fans themselves will let us know. They're always up to date and they have a way of getting the message across.

"My focus though has to be on Chelsea, which is a game we want to be positive in. We have to take the game to them and we have to be serious about beating them. We can't influence events elsewhere, but we can have a big say in what happens in our own game."

One potential positive for the Black Cats is that Chelsea will play in the FA Cup final the week after Sunday's game, and may take it a little easier than usual with one nervous eye on Wembley.

"I think Chelsea will have one eye on the final," Sbragia added.

"They'll not want injuries, that's for sure. And we've got to make the most of that."We know that Chelsea will still put out a strong side. We know that they have strength in depth and we know that playing any top four side is a massive challenge.

"But we have home advantage, we have our crowd behind us and we've got to give a good account of ourselves."