SAM ALLARDYCE is glad to see the back of a disastrous December which has left Sunderland seven-points adrift of safety in the Premier League relegation battle ahead of an enormous meeting with basement boys Aston Villa on Saturday.

A fortunate Christian Benteke strike 22 seconds into the second half proved enough for Liverpool to inflict the fifth defeat of the festive month on the Black Cats, who remain adrift in the bottom three.

Allardyce, the Sunderland manager, used an expletive to describe the horrible December run of results, which also included defeats to Arsenal, Chelsea, Watford and Manchester City, and he will now look to push through transfer deals to improve his side’s chances of staying up.

Sunderland have agreed a fee for Lorient defender Lamine Kone, although Allardyce did not wish to comment on the situation. He is also interested in Bayern Munich stopper Jan Kirchhoff, while there are other options in France he is working on.

There will be no new signings in the Sunderland team to face Villa, however, and that is what he will have to get his players up for over the next 48 hours.

Allardyce said: “Seeing the lads go out and giving me some encouragement, keep the shape of the side, keep your determination and you play for each other like you played today, it’s against £300m worth of talent (Liverpool) and in some spells matched it.

“The only thing we need is somebody to put the ball in the back of the net and win a game to build the confidence.

“What you’ve got to do is play your best against Aston Villa and win. That’s our real nerve tester now. We must keep our nerve on Saturday and even though they’ve had a couple of days more than we have to get ready for it, we’ve got to be ready physically and mentally to make sure we’re the team that comes away with three points.”

Sunderland had a couple of chances in the first half, while goalkeeper Vito Mannone made a couple of wonderful saves to deny Liverpool the lead too. The signs at that stage, though, were encouraging for the home side.

But a routine ball towards the Sunderland box took a flick off Adam Lallana, which caught out Wes Brown and the Sunderland defence. The ball fell invitingly for Benteke to dispatch the finish immediately after the restart.

Allardyce said: “I don’t think we deserved to lose it on the basis of how lucky the goal was. Phillipe Coutinho or Lallana had produced a bit of brilliance and put it away in the back of our net then you can hold your hands up, but when it’s that stroke of luck like they got …

“Lallana miscontrolled it, it flicked off his toe right into Benteke’s path and even he mishit and then it bounces over Vito so we were very unlucky there. It killed the second half for us, sadly.

“We matched Liverpool in the first half and were hoping we were going to carry that on but we got kicked in the ‘you know what’s’ and it killed us and took us a while to recover from that.

“Our anxiety in the final third just let us down. We got there a lot of times but didn’t produce the quality to help us get at least a point. We’ve got to keep going, keep believing and keep our nerve and make sure we get ready for our big clash now on Saturday.”

Sunderland’s problems worsened too. Jack Rodwell had to go off with a hamstring problem and Seb Coates suffered a dead leg in a collision, which left right-back Billy Jones having to slot in alongside Wes Brown at the back.

Allardyce, who already has Younes Kaboul and John O’Shea sidelined, said: “Problems always arise at this time of year with injuries.

“I hope John will be OK for Saturday. Wes did great. Old Wes did fantastically, reading the game, he stepped in after not playing very much. He hasn’t played since Everton. With the way it’s going at the moment, he’s very important to us, in fact every defender is very important to us.”

After calling Jurgen Klopp a ‘soft German’ for suggesting Jeremain Lens should have been red carded for a strong tackle on Mamadou Sakho he was also frustrated by the Liverpool manager’s approach to the incident.

Allardyce said: “There was some foul and abusive language towards my staff that I didn’t like. After the end, it was alright though, because we all shook hands and got on with it, which is what you’ve got to do.”

Earlier in the day French club Lorient claimed a deal of around £4m had been agreed for towering defender Kone, 26, and he is expected to conclude a move as soon as the transfer window opens on January 2.

Lorient’s vice-president Alex Hayes said: “We have received an offer that we have accepted. It is now up to Lamine to find an agreement with Sunderland and to pass the medical before the transfer can be made official.”