FABIO BORINI has urged his Sunderland team-mates to ‘get back to basics’ as they look to pull off yet another ‘Great Escape’ despite their current position at the foot of the Premier League.

The Black Cats are three points adrift of safety ahead of this weekend’s fixtures, which will see them entertain third-placed Manchester City tomorrow afternoon.

With the ten sides directly above them all playing today, they could be in even deeper trouble when they kick off against Pep Guardiola’s side, but having been involved in two of Sunderland’s last three survival battles, Borini insists there is no need to panic.

The Italian scored crucial goals against Chelsea, Cardiff and West Brom as the Wearsiders survived under Gus Poyet in 2014, and was on target again last season as his side secured crucial late-season victories over Norwich and Chelsea to scramble to safety.

Each of the club’s successful survival fights has featured a pivotal win over a big-name opponent, but on no occasion does Borini believe the Black Cats have suddenly started playing sensational football. Instead, their togetherness, spirit and organisation have proved key, and the 25-year-old has urged his team-mates to summon all of those characteristics when they take on City tomorrow.

“We’re Sunderland,” said Borini. “We can’t play like Barcelona, and no one expects us to play like Barcelona because we’re not.

“What we have to do against the big teams is stay in the game for as long as possible, because we know we’re Sunderland, we’re hard workers. We’ve been told about the history of the club, they tell us that it’s a hard-working place, and that’s what we have to do.

“We have to do what we did in the past few years, which is get out of where we are. We showed how much desire and effort we had to stay in the Premier League, and we need to do that again.

“You can look at last season, especially because we were not playing rocket-science football – it was simple, direct football to stay up. It was the effort we put up on the defensive side with the clean sheet to stay up. We have to do the same.

“Every time we stayed up in the past few years, it has been down to what we have done ourselves on the pitch by working together and sacrificing for one another. That’s what kept us up - not the unbelievable football we played.

“We don’t have to play unbelievable football to stay up, we have proved that in the past. Confidence is the key in modern football, as Leicester showed last season – they won the league with an average team.”

Since then, of course, Leicester’s fortunes have nose-dived, but Borini feels that simply proves how powerful momentum can be, whether in a positive or negative direction.

For the majority of this season, Sunderland have been on a downward spiral, but there is still time for a couple of positive results to transform the prevailing mood.

That said, however, the clock is ticking, and having won just one of their last ten league games, David Moyes’ side clearly have to improve quickly if they are to give themselves a chance of remaining in the top-flight.

“We know in football how quickly things can change,” said Borini. “(Claudio) Ranieri has been sacked nine months after he won the league. He should have a statue outside the stadium like people said, so we always know that football can change.

“There is plenty of time, but they are pressure games now. Not everyone can play pressure games, but I know when the pressure is on, I perform to my best. That’s when I stay calm and get my experience out of my performances. The manager knows and my team-mates know, if I am in the right frame of mind, then I can get goals and results.”

Borini has only scored once this season, in the Boxing Day defeat to Manchester United, but the former Liverpool forward has previously emerged as the man for the big occasion in a Sunderland shirt.

As well as scoring in three games against Chelsea, he also found the net in home and away victories over Newcastle United as well as the semi-final and final of the Capital One Cup in 2014. That final goal came against Manchester City, and he is relishing the opportunity to lock horns with the same opponents again tomorrow.

“I like being involved against Manchester City, but not for the reason of the League Cup final I scored in,” he said. “You want to take on the best players, play against the best and alongside them if possible.

“We played well in the first game against them this season (when Sunderland lost 2-1 on the opening weekend of the season), and we have to do the same again.

“We were compact and defended well all game – we have to do the same again because it will be harder for them at our place, they hate coming up here.”