Emanuele Giaccherini believes Sunderland have changed their mentality after edging out of the Premier League's relegation zone.
The Black Cats leapt to 17th position on the table courtesy of Saturday's 4-0 home win over Cardiff City which came in the wake of a morale-boosting 2-2 draw with Manchester City and a massive 2-1 triumph at Chelsea last weekend.
The Wearsiders have their noses ahead of third-bottom Norwich City ahead of this weekend's trip to Manchester United and Italian winger Giaccherini says the players are going into the fixture in a much more positive frame of mind.
"For me, our mentality changed at Man City," he told the Sunderland Echo.
"That draw made us stronger mentally and from there, everything has changed.
"We need to continue like this in the next game at Manchester United. We will go there to win.
"We have good memories of going there from the League Cup, but we can't think about that game. This is a different game. Manchester United have changed managers and they will be very difficult.
"It was very, very important to win against Cardiff because they are directly around us.
"Now we've got seven points from the last three games which is fantastic. We think we can stay up going into these final three games."
