Sunderland midfielder Yann M'Vila is making no bones about the fact that the Black Cats simply must beat Norwich City when the two teams meet at the weekend.
Sam Allardyce takes his Sunderland team south to Carrow Road on Saturday to take on the Canaries in a game which could have a huge say on which team drops down to the Championship at the end of the season.
Norwich sit above Sunderland, just outside the drop zone, but have a cushion of only four points, while the Black Cats have a game in hand.
And M'Vila, whose side lost 2-0 at home to Leicester City on Sunday, knows that Sunderland simply must win to start to erase the four-point gap between the two teams.
The French midfielder was quoted as saying by ITV: "We have to win against Norwich, there's no question of a draw. We have to take the points and absolutely have to win at any cost.
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"It's like a derby, a cup final and we have to approach it like that", M'Vila continued.
"There will be pressure on both teams, but more on us because there's four points between us.
"We absolutely need to win because if we draw, Norwich will still have that four-point gap."
Norwich went down to a damaging 1-0 defeat away at Crystal Palace at the weekend and have a goal difference of minus 22, compared to Sunderland's minus 21.
