Sunderland will head into Saturday’s Premier League clash with Stoke City in high spirits, according to Vito Mannone.
The stopper returned to action over the festive period after Jordan Pickford was ruled out due to a knee injury, and after impressing against Liverpool the Italian picked up a first clean sheet of the season against Burnley.
On Saturday Mark Hughes’ Potters will arrive on Wearside where they will attempt to join Arsenal and Chelsea as the only sides to win at the Stadium of Light since September.
But speaking to safc.com, the ‘keeper was confident of heaping more Wearside woe on Stoke, who have failed to win on any of their last 14 trip to the SoL.
“There are plenty of positives to take into Saturday’s game following two draws at the start of the year,” explained Mannone.
“We played really well against Liverpool and then did okay against Burnley – with a lot of changes – and once again we will have 45,000 people cheering us on against Stoke, so I’m sure we can push on and pick up the three points.”
He continued: “It’s an important game for us because they’re only nine points ahead of us and a win makes it six.
“They’ve shown how quickly you can move up the table if you can put together a run of wins, so hopefully we can do that and start with three points on Saturday.
“Our form at the Stadium of Light has been very good in recent months and we want to build on that this weekend.”