MOUSSA Sissoko, the newly-appointed Newcastle United skipper, admits his side will have to topple at least one of the Premier League's big guns to pull off their great escape.

Rafa Benitez's side can climb out of the bottom three for the first time since early February with victory over Manchester City at St James's Park tonight as they look to build on the crucial 3-0 victory over Swansea which gave them fresh hope of avoiding a second relegation in seven years.

Sissoko led by example after being made skipper in the wake of Jonjo Shelvey's surprise axing from the starting line-up at the weekend. The armband brought the best out of the Jekyll and Hyde midfielder, who capped a stand-out individual display with a rare goal as a first win for two months edged the second-bottom Tynesiders to within three points of safety.

Shelvey, acting as stand-in skipper for injury-prone club captain Fabricio Coloccini, is hopeful of a recall tonight, and could replace Cheick Tiote in a holding midfield role alongside Jack Colback as Benitez promised changes to guard against fatigue with two games in the space of 72 hours.

Sissoko insists it is unimportant who leads the side out as Newcastle go in search of back-to-back wins for the first time since December against a City side running into form ahead of next week's Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid.

The France international said: “It's good to be made captain, and it turned out to be the perfect afternoon, but to be honest the most important thing was to win the game. It doesn’t really matter if I’m captain or if it's someone else, I just want to do well for my team and give everything."

Benitez is likely to stick with Sissoko as skipper, and the Spaniard said: "It's been difficult, because when I arrived everybody was talking about the decision to make Jonjo captain, but he wasn't in the team at the weekend and I decided on Moussa. He's a very good option, he trains well, he works hard, and is a leader.

"I've been on at him about his goalscoring so we've had a bit of a joke about the one he got against Swansea. I'm pleased for him how well he did, and he's a good example for the other players."

Victory over Manuel Pellegrini's side will see Newcastle leapfrog Sunderland and fourth-bottom Norwich to climb out of the relegation zone in an increasingly tense final month to the campaign as the battle to avoid joining Aston Villa in dropping into the Championship reaches a nerve-shredding climax.

The North-East is set to lose at least one of its top-flight clubs, but the Tynesiders will fancy their chances of beating Crystal Palace when former boss Alan Pardew makes his first return at the end of April, and will start favourites for the trip to Villa Park at the start of May.

But with their three other remaining games seeing them take on City, and Liverpool at Anfield before rounding-off the campaign at home to title-chasing Tottenham, Sissoko concedes Newcastle are likely to have to pull off a result against one of the Premier League's big beasts in order to stay up.

Newcastle have beaten Spurs and Jurgen Klopp's Reds already this season, but face a City side looking for a seventh consecutive victory in this fixture at a venue where they remain unbeaten for almost 11 years.

Sissoko added: "The belief is returning. We have our game in hand on Tuesday and if we do well, we will be on the same points as Norwich with four games left so we have to give everything.

"It won't be easy, especially against City, but we need to believe we can stay up because we are good enough to do it. We've beaten Liverpool and Tottenham already this season. Manchester City are one of the best teams in England, but we are at home, in front of our fans and we will give everything."

Along with the potential return of Shelvey, Papiss Cisse could find his place under threat while Siem de Jong could come in for Georginio Wijnaldum as Benitez looks to freshen things up as Newcastle go into the first of five games over the next month that will decide their fate.

He added: "When you play once a week you can keep the same side if the team is playing well, but if you play two games a week, normally you have to change things to avoid any danger of tiredness. The players have to realise that they have to do well and work hard, or maybe they won't play.’’