AITOR KARANKA thinks the last five weeks have shown Middlesbrough’s players can handle life in the Premier League – and now he feels there is plenty more to come.

Boro have collected six points from the last five fixtures and, even though there has only been one win during that run, they have shown the resilience and quality required to succeed in the top-flight.

The fact there has only been one defeat during a sequence of fixtures against Arsenal, Bournemouth, Manchester City, Chelsea and defending champions Leicester City, he feels, bodes well going into the last two-thirds of the season.

But Karanka also knows such positive displays will count for little if they can’t follow their promising performances with victories over the lesser teams in the division, such as Hull City on Monday night.

But, regardless of what happens at the Riverside on Saturday against the Tigers, he is certain he has the players at his disposal and that the victories will start to flow after just two wins in the Premier League since leaving the Championship behind.

Karanka said “The players have shown they can cope with the Premier League. My frustration is how much it takes for us to add points. If you look at the table we have 12 points, but we should have won against Stoke, Arsenal and Watford.

“We should've at least drawn against Crystal Palace so we could have got 18 or 20 points. That's one side of my frustration, but the other side is that one day we will start to win the games and get more confident.”

The visit of Hull is the first of six matches in December when Middlesbrough will attempt to put a decent chunk of points on the board in the battle to stay clear of the bottom three.

At this stage Boro have picked up 12 points from an opening 13 matches at the higher level but Karanka thinks there has not been a lot to worry about when he has looked back on the games they have played.

He said: “I prefer to think about our performances. Points - nobody expected anything against Man City, Arsenal or Leicester and we got five points, we expected something from Watford or Crystal Palace but we didn't win.

“I prefer to keep confident as the performances over the last month and a half have been really good, and playing in this way with this organisation and this character, for sure, we will win games.

“I think I told you one month ago that the period reminded me of last season in January and February when everyone was (worried), but at that time I was confident as we had a good squad, we were one year more mature. This season we have to keep going, for sure we will lose games and win, but working in this way I'm confident.”

Former Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce has regularly, over the years, suggested that one of the biggest indications of a side’s chances of staying up is by averaging a point per game.

At this stage Middlesbrough are just under that, but Karanka said: “I knew last season that two points was the average in the Championship and in the last three or four games we took just four or five points so I take it game-by-game. Once again what gives me confidence is the performances and the attitude, I’m not worried about the points.

“We've got 12 points now but nobody expected us to get a point at the Emirates and another point at the Etihad so it's just 'if we win against Hull it's three points', if we don't win we have to win at Southampton in the following game.”

Middlesbrough’s players have had a couple of days off after the draw at Leicester City but they were back on the training ground at Rockliffe Park yesterday as they step up preparations for the visit of Hull.

Karanka was an interested observer at the KCOM Stadium on Tuesday night when Hull knocked Newcastle United out of the EFL Cup to claim a semi-final place after a penalty shoot-out.