Connor Wickham’s mixed emotions as Sunderland must wait on fate

Sunderland blew the chance to confirm their place in the Premier League next season after they were held to a stalemate against Leicester on Saturday - their 16th draw of the campaign.

Yet Sunderland extended the gap with the relegation zone to three points and now only require a solitary point from their final two games at Arsenal and Chelsea to be mathematically certain of top flight football.

Unless third-bottom Hull beat Manchester United on Sunday, Sunderland will already be safe, regardless of the outcome at the Emirates and Stamford Bridge.

“It’s pretty mixed,” admitted Wickham.

“We’ve moved three points clear of Hull.

“The performance was OK, not great, but we’ve still got that cushion and Hull need to beat Man United on the last day.

“They’re tough games away from home, but we know what we need to do, we need one point.

“We’re capable of doing that, so there are two opportunities to clinch it and hopefully we can do it on Wednesday night.

“We know what we need to do, it’s in our hands now.

“Anything we can do towards survival is going to be key.

“Maybe we missed an opportunity to clinch it, but we’ll take it, move on and we’re still confident.”