MIDDLESBROUGH will be relegated unless they claim at least a point from league leaders Chelsea tonight, but head coach Steve Agnew is backing a revitalised Alvaro Negredo to lead a survival charge.

Swansea’s 1-0 win over Everton means Boro head to Stamford Bridge seven points adrift of safety with three games remaining. Lose this evening, with Chelsea hoping to move within one game of the title, and they will be playing Championship football next season.

A draw will leave Boro having to beat Southampton and Liverpool in their final two games to have any chance of surviving, but a win would potentially transform the picture at the foot of the table.

The Teessiders go into tonight’s game in an upbeat mood, having followed their crucial 1-0 win over Sunderland with a spirited 2-2 draw against Manchester City, and their hopes of pulling off a huge surprise could hinge on whether Negredo is able to reprise the form he displayed in his last outing.

The Spaniard was sensational against Manchester City, and having tinkered with his routine on the training ground, Agnew is anticipating another effective display tonight.

“Alvaro has been different class, he really has,” said the Boro boss, who is set to name the same starting line-up that kicked off against City. “He has trained in the last few weeks with a smile on his face, and has been working really hard.

“We’ve introduced different things into training, and I can see with different practices how he has started to score more goals in training. He’s probably been shown more ideas of how to move, where to move, and how difficult it is for the opposition to deal with his movement.

“Obviously, for a player like Alvaro Negredo to start performing to the level he has, then that has a massive knock-on effect on the rest of the players who provide the service for him.”

Negredo’s opener against Manchester City took his tally for the season to ten goals in all competitions, a decent return, but perhaps not the seismic impact that was hoped for when he agreed to move from Valencia on a season-long loan.

The 31-year-old has played in patches, sporadically superb, but also ineffective on occasion. His more ineffectual displays have tended to come when he has been starved of service, and he unquestionably suffered from Aitor Karanka’s conservative tactics.

When Karanka was head coach, Negredo often found himself isolated, with Boro’s central midfielders instructed not to push too far forward. Agnew has tinkered with things, and Negredo has benefited from the likes of Marten de Roon, Stewart Downing and Rudy Gestede joining him in the box.

“What I would say about Alvaro is that he’s a goalscorer, a finisher,” said Agnew. “He has one of the most powerful left foots I’ve ever seen in football.

“Has he contributed to the team this season? Of course he has. He’s got nine league goals – ten if you count the cup – so his contribution has been terrific. But we probably haven’t contributed enough from other areas of the field to assist Alvaro in terms of him getting us more goals.”

Patrick Bamford was signed to provide some additional support in January, but as he prepares to return to the club that groomed him, the 23-year-old remains a peripheral figure.

Frustration has been a common emotion throughout Bamford’s career, but Agnew remains convinced the striker will play a prominent role in the future, no matter what division Boro are playing in next season.

“I’ve had several chats with Patrick,” he said. “He’s missed football for 18 months, so it does take a lot of time to catch up. He came on against Burnley, and he was a problem.

“He’s trained really well. He has had a little bit of a niggle with his groin, or potentially a hernia problem. That has been a problem for him, but over the last few days, he’s been terrific in training and he will be a big player for us in the future.”

Chelsea have plenty of incentive to impress themselves this evening as a victory would mean Antonio Conte’s side could clinch the Premier League title when they travel to West Brom on Friday night.

The challenge facing Boro could hardly be stiffer, but while continues to shelve talk about his own long-term prospects, Agnew admits he is relishing nights such as tonight.

“It’s a massive game for both clubs,” he said. “As a player, you want to be playing on a Monday night, under the lights at Stamford Bridge. As a coach, you’re applying yourself against the best.

“It was (Pep) Guardiola last week, it’s Conte this week. I have to make sure that both myself and the staff do everything possible to try to get the result we want.

“Is it enjoyable? Of course it is. This is why we’re in it, to play and perform against the best. With the little bit of luck we will need on the night, we’re confident we can come away with the result.”

Middlesbrough (probable, 4-3-3): Guzan; Fabio, Chambers, Gibson, Friend; de Roon, Clayton, Forshaw; Stuani, Negredo, Downing.