Crystal Palace are six points from safety with three games left to play and boss Sam Allardyce is confident avoiding the drop into the Championship.

He told Sky Sports: "We were so deep in the mire before, look how much it has taken to get out of it, and we're still not safe.

"It's an achievement to get to where we are, but there's only one goal, the goal is to stay safe in the Premier League so we can build next season.

"We can't have the devastation of being relegated. It's a massive task to deal with that today and fight to come back.

"Relegation hasn't been a part of my vocabulary since I took over Notts County all those years ago. Since then we've always been on the up, always looked up, at every club we've been at and I've been at. I hope it'll be the same for Crystal Palace at the end of the season."

They finish the campaign with trips to City and Manchester United either side of a home match with relegation-threatened Hull.

"I don't need to motivate the players against the big boys," says Allardyce. "Against Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City, whoever, the size of the club motivates the players.

"There'd be no doubt about that, I'd love a 0-0. You know I love a clean sheet. You play in those games, at those football clubs, and anything you get is a bonus. All of those games are the icing on top of the cake.

"We've got it in our own hands, and it's taken us a long time to get it that way, and we've got to deliver it now it's in our own hands.

"For us it's about getting mathematically safe so we can plan for next season."