Sunderland defender Jan Kirchhoff has insisted that his side will pick up points if they can match the performance they produced against Manchester City over the coming weeks.

Despite dominating much of the contest at the Stadium of Light this evening, the hosting Black Cats were defeated 1-0 by the title-chasing Citizens.

However, January signing Kirchhoff has stressed that the luck will swing Sunderland's way if they continue to play in a similar manner.

"When you play on this intensity you can be a very strong opponent to any team in the world," the German told the club's official website.

"We have good quality and a good team with good players in the squad so we have to perform like this every week.

"There will be other teams who can't defend so well as City and aren't so lucky, so hopefully we will be rewarded for our team effort."

Sunderland, who are 19th in the Premier League table, travel to Liverpool on Saturday.