SAM ALLARDYCE has urged his Sunderland players to stay focused on the challenge of keeping Premier League football at the Stadium of Light and not let the pressure get to them.

The Black Cats boss is gearing his team up for a crucial game with Chelsea on Wearside on Saturday when three points could see them climb out of the bottom three again.

Chelsea turned in a strong display on Monday night in a London derby to earn the point which has ruled Tottenham out of the title race and hand the crown to Leicester City.

And Allardyce’s message to his squad is to stay cool in the remaining three matches to keep Sunderland up.

He said: “You can see what pressure does. The first example is of Spurs losing control under that pressure. Perhaps it is because they are – as Mauricio Pochettino says – such a young team. Maybe that’s why they lost the plot, you don’t normally see a Tottenham team going around hacking a team like they did.

“That’s the last thing we want to see in the last three games, we want to see controlled passion, desire, commitment but we don’t want to see us lose control. We have to put everything into try to beat a strong Chelsea side.”

Sunderland trail Newcastle, who play bottom club Aston Villa at Villa Park, by a point but do have a game in hand.

Allardyce, who has a doubt surrounding the fitness of full-back Billy Jones, said: “I have a gut feeling it will go to last game but I hope we can win the next two and we maybe won’t have to rely on last game.

“If we can come away with back-to-back wins at home, which we did once at home, before going to Watford on the last day that would be ideal, so we have to try to do that again in the space of four days. It’s a massive week, massive pressure.

“I think the three clubs involved in it, it is who copes with the pressure the best and delivers the results. We are in the dog-fight and we have a full house on Saturday against Chelsea. Hopefully they can be the 12th man for us and we try to win the game.”