DAVID MOYES is convinced Sunderland will survive if they repeat yesterday’s performance against Manchester City in the final 11 games of the season – even though the 2-0 defeat leaves the Black Cats six points adrift of safety.

Moyes’ side remain rooted to the foot of the table after goals from Sergio Aguero and Leroy Sane took third-placed City to within eight points of league leaders Chelsea.

Sunderland have lost their last three matches without scoring, and while they contained City for the opening 42 minutes of yesterday’s game, they never looked like springing the kind of surprise that has kick-started some of their previous successful survival campaigns.

Nevertheless, Moyes was pleased with his players’ commitment and effort, and feels a repeat showing in the next 11 matches will enable his side to clamber out of the bottom three.

“If we play like this in the remaining matches, I think we’ll have a good chance,” said the Sunderland boss. “I don’t think you could ask any questions of the players today, about their energy or their attitude.

“You couldn’t look over your shoulder at any of them because they were terrific in terms of what they tried to give.

“The full-backs gave everything, and the midfield boys did their best to try to stop them. What you maybe could question at times was our quality, and what we were doing with the ball.”

With Crystal Palace, Swansea and Leicester all winning on Saturday, Sunderland find themselves six points adrift of safety, and with an inferior goal difference to all their relegation rivals apart from Hull.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to see how they can survive, and with no game next weekend because of the FA Cup quarter-finals, the pressure will have increased further by the time they host Burnley in 12 days’ time.

With an international break at the end of the month, the Burnley game is Sunderland’s only remaining fixture in March, and with six games scheduled for April, a tally that could increase further once the trip to Middlesbrough is rearranged, Moyes wants to ensure his team remains in touch with their opponents.

“April looks like being a really big month for us because of the amount of games that are in it,” he said. “We don’t want to be adrift. I’ve always said that was the key.

“We’ve only got one more game in March with the way the month works out, and there will be a round of Premier League fixtures next week which we’re not involved in.

“I’m just hoping that come the start of April, we might just be able to add a few more players to the squad. With another three or four weeks, can we get Victor (Anichebe), (Jan) Kirchhoff and (Lee) Cattermole back? They might just bolster the troops going into the final six weeks.”

Moyes was satisfied with his players’ application against City, even though their opponents won without really having to break sweat.

Sunderland’s only opportunity came to nothing when Jermain Defoe struck the base of the post in the first half, but with City having racked up their fourth win in succession, a sequence that included a Champions League thumping of Monaco, Moyes was quick to highlight the strength of the opposition.

“I thought the boys played and worked really hard to get something out of the game,” he said. “I thought their commitment and game plan to try to stop City playing was good, but it’s pretty difficult because they’re a very good team. Anyone who was at the City-Monaco game would have vouched for that.

“I’ve got to say our players gave everything they could, but when we got the ball back – which we did quite a bit – we lacked the quality to make opportunities or build the play.”

Guardiola was happy to have kept up the pressure on Chelsea, who travel to West Ham this evening, although he admitted his side were fortunate to be ahead at the break, such was the quality of Sunderland’s first-half play.

“We knew that these kind of games are the most difficult,” said the City boss. “When you play in games like this, people say, ‘It will be easy, it will be easy’. But it is so complicated. We saw that in the first minute, they were so aggressive.

“We were lucky to end the first half 1-0, but we scored the second goal and then after that we controlled the game.”