THE wise head of Christian Bassila has attempted to defuse any unrest at Sunderland by trying to compare the club's perilous Premiership position to that of escaping a blazing family home.

The philosophical Frenchman, due to return from injury for the reserves tonight, used the analogy to try to ensure the rest of the Black Cats squad do not become too worried about what has gone on in recent weeks.

Sunderland have lost their last five games to drop back to the foot of the table, and Bassila has had to look on while nursing a hamstring problem.

But the 28-year-old does not believe now is a time for anxiety and has chosen to take a much more relaxed approach to the prospect of a season of struggling against relegation.

"I am one of the experienced players and all I try to do is make sure the younger players are relaxed and not panicking," said Bassila, surrounded by a youthful squad at the Stadium of Light.

"If you are in a house and it catches fire, and you are running around, screaming and shouting, if you are panicking, the children will start crying and you will all be burnt. You have to make sure you stay calm.

"We need to stay relaxed. I don't like to speak a lot about why things are happening, that's the gaffer's job, I just try to do my job on the pitch and hopefully people like my football.

"We have to make sure we just do our best, work hard and stop thinking about the situation we're in the whole time. That's the same at the top and the bottom of the league. As long as we do that we will win games."

It is the second successive campaign Bassila has found himself trying to avoid the ignominy of dropping out of the elite league.

In France, before signing for Sunderland in August, Strasbourg looked doomed to the second tier of the French League after being rooted to the bottom three for much of the campaign.

However, Bassila and his former team-mates turned things around and ended up in a mid-table position, some six points above Caen, who occupied the final place in the drop zone.

"I've been in this sort of situation before. Last season (at Strasbourg) we were in a similar situation at the start of the season but we ended up finishing eleventh," said the Parisien.

"You must not panic, you can't keep thinking and talking about what has happened before. You can put too much pressure on yourself if you are always going on about disappointments.

"We have put a lot of pressure on ourselves because we keep saying our next game is a must win game. When we lost against Portsmouth it had been called a must-win game then suddenly everyone was angry because we lost it and started to talk about us being relegated."

If Bassila's first steps on the road to full recovery for Sunderland's reserves against Wolves tonight are taken successfully then he could be back in the team for the visit of fourth from bottom Aston Villa a week on Saturday.

The former West Ham man has not played since pulling up with a hamstring problem in the 1-1 draw against his old club on October 1, and it is no surprise Sunderland's run of form has coincided with his absence.

"The hamstring is fine and I feel good. But I still have to be a little bit careful as I'm easing my way back into things," said Bassila, who only tasted defeat at Chelsea in his five appearances for the Wearside outfit.

"It's been a very frustrating injury because I had settled well.

"I didn't like watching games because I couldn't do anything to help my team. When I was injured things were going well, we were playing well, we just weren't getting the results we deserved. That continued at Newcastle, when we played a good game, but lost."

Sunderland now have three consecutive home games. Tickets against Villa and Birmingham are priced at £8 and £20. Tickets for the Liverpool fixture are priced at £10 and £25.

Read more about Sunderland here.