ONCE we get tomorrow night’s friendly against Italy out of the way we can turn our attention back to the Premier League with eight games to secure our Premier League status for another season.

I’ve done very little else but look at the fixture list over the last few weeks and I still believe we’ll get enough to stay up, and here’s why.

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Leicester City, who visit the Turf on April 25, and QPR both look like their race is run and I think they’ll be the first two relegated.

The battle to avoid that final relegation place is between us, Sunderland, Hull City and Aston Villa.

I reckon Aston Villa will probably have enough to secure survival so that leaves the three of us fighting it out.

Steve Bruce’s Hull have, on paper at least, the toughest run-in with trips to Southampton, Crystal Palace, Swansea and Spurs not offering up much in the way of winnable games.

We have to go to Hull and that fixture is probably the one they’ll be targeting. They also welcome Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United to the KC Stadium so it’s not going to be an easy feat for the Tigers.

Sunderland, under new boss Dick Advocaat, have a visit from Newcastle on Sunday and a home game against Crystal Palace the week after and they’ll be keen to get six points on the board to kickstart their survival push.

The worry for the Mackems will be their final two games when they head south for trips to Arsenal and Chelsea in the final week of the season. If they’re not safe by that point then it could be them who slip through the trap door.

Our run-in isn’t easy but I think we have winnable games in there.

I’m not sure how many points will be enough this season but three wins and a draw as a bare minimum would put us on 35.

Buckle up, it’s going to be some ride!