VICTOR ANICHEBE thinks a naivety in the way Sunderland have attacked the Premier League this season can go a long way in explaining why they are flying headline into a Championship return.

The Black Cats have seven matches to pull off a sporting miracle by eradicating a ten point gap to safety which would keep them in the top-flight for another year.

But Sunderland, who have only won once since in the league since before Christmas, look destined to be playing in the Football League for the first time since Roy Keane led them to promotion ten years ago.

David Moyes, the Sunderland boss, has offered a numerous reasons for the team’s plight in recent months and Anichebe thinks aspects of the side’s play has been just as pivotal in the plight.

Anichebe said: “I always speak honestly, I think we have a bit of naivety in our play sometimes. We go a goal down and instead of staying tight in our play, really concentrating, that’s the thing the manager is trying to address to the players.

“You go a goal down, it doesn’t matter, that happens to every team in the Premier League, you need to give yourselves a foundation to come back, but when you a goal down and then concede again, it makes it very difficult for the rest of the team, it makes it so difficult.

“That’s the main thing, the naivety sometimes, sometimes we chase the game and think we need to get the goal straight away, we don’t.

“Look at the game Tottenham played against Swansea, they went down and scored three at the end of the game, speaking back to when we were at Everton, keeping clean sheets these are things we need to do as a team.”

Sunderland have gone seven matches without scoring a goal; dating back to the 4-0 victory at Crystal Palace on February 11 when hopes of survival received a real boost.

They have collected just a single point from the 21 available since, largely as a result of being unable to bounce back from falling behind.

There has been criticism of the Sunderland defence this season because of the fact they have lost 21 times in the Premier League – a statistic they must improve on when West Ham arrive at the Stadium of Light on Saturday

Anichebe, though, said: “It’s not the defence, people might say that, it’s not, you keep clean sheets as a team not as individuals. Maybe we could have dropped back a bit more, it’s the whole teams.

“Those are the foundations we need, you can feel the nervousness when we concede and sometimes we play to that, attack, attack, and then they break on us.

“We have a youngish team, so I think those are things we need to knock out of our game, the manager tells us every week to stay in the game. But going 2-0 down gives you a mountain to climb, especially against a team like Manchester United.”

Allowing standards to drop was certainly the case against United on Sunday. Even though Seb Larsson was harshly sent off for a tackle on Ander Herrera, Jose Mounrinho’s side had it too easy after the restart and added two more goals to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s opener.

There was still a crowd in excess of 40,000 inside the Stadium of Light and Anichebe, whose first season on Wearside has been hampered by injuries, does not think fans deserve the situation the club finds itself in.

He said: “I’m feeling downbeat obviously, it’s not a good result. Everything seems to be going against us.

“I had a half chance to score myself but the keeper came out really quick, it’s the same for me and the rest of the boys, we just need to keep going.

“You see the fans outside there, they support us every game, I think we need to pour everything out for them, we need to just keep fighting and see where it takes us.

“There’s some parts of the Man United game that we can take pride in, obviously I was a bit off it, I’ve been out for a while, but I linked up with Jermain Defoe a couple of times. It’s going to take me a couple of games.

“I wish I had time, or we had time, but we don’t. I haven’t trained much but I wanted to come in and help if I could, Sunday wasn't a good day, it’s a disappointing day, we haven’t had a good week.”