Sam Allardyce calls on Sunderland to produce in 'electric' home games to get out of relegation zone

The Black Cats face Chelsea and Everton at home in the next two matches

Sam Allardyce celebrates Sunderland's dramatic draw at Stoke (Getty)

Sam Allardyce was right. Without Jermain Defoe, Sunderland would already have been relegated at around about the same time and with not many more points than Aston Villa.

The last-minute penalty that gave Sunderland a draw at Stoke they had barely deserved was his 14th of the season. Those 14 goals have delivered 12 points. Among the three clubs desperately trying to avoid joining Aston Villa in the Championship next season, there is nobody quite with Defoe’s influence.

As he walked off the pitch, the first thing the 33-year-old striker asked for was the Newcastle score. Given that Newcastle’s next match is at Aston Villa, Defoe probably won’t need to ask for it next Saturday after Sunderland’s home game against Chelsea. Then comes their match in hand against Everton.

The odds are that Rafa Benitez’s side will go into the final afternoon of the season on 36 points. They will be at home, Sunderland will be at Watford.

“We have to use these next two games to get ourselves into a situation where we are out of the bottom three going into the last game of the season,” said Defoe. “Whatever else happens, we want to be going to Watford knowing that, if we win, we will definitely be safe.

Jermain Defoe celebrates his penalty for Sunderland (Getty)

“I think it helps that we have got two home games. I can imagine the atmosphere is going to be electric and I am looking forward to that.”

And yet nothing is straightforward about Sunderland’s two home fixtures. Their last 10 games at the Stadium of Light against Chelsea have produced one point. The last 10 at home against Everton have brought seven. Historically, Sunderland could barely have chosen worse opponents.

Both Newcastle and Sunderland are cities where talk seldom ranges far from football and as the season reaches its climax the pressure on the banks of the Tyne and the Wear will be immense.

“In terms of the city of Sunderland, everything there is very close-knit,” said Allardyce. “They want to have contact with the players as much as they can. I don’t see anything wrong with that. We are paid to take the pressure, so let’s take it and play our best.

“Let us just accept where we are and let the pressure bring the best out of us as it has before.”

Apart from their game in hand, Sunderland do have one clear advantage. Many in Allardyce’s team, including Defoe, have been here before. Sunderland have become what Southampton and Coventry were to an earlier generation. The club that always seems to survive.

Asked how he would lessen that pressure, Allardyce replied: “Talk about the last few games rather than this one. I want us to get back to the performance against Arsenal (that finished in a goalless draw Sunderland might have won) and try to emulate it against Chelsea.

“We would have been in a much better position today had Palace scored their penalty against Newcastle but we can only control our own destiny and our own destiny must first be to beat Chelsea.”