TWO defeats in three Premier League matches at this stage of the season is about as near to a crisis as they come at Manchester United, and Dwight Yorke wants his Sunderland teammates to prove once again that his former club are “beatable” this afternoon.

While United need to claim maximum points at the Stadium of Light today to keep ahead of Liverpool in the race for the Premier League title, Sunderland know that victory is just as important to them, with Newcastle within touching distance below them.

Losing to United today would leave the door open for rivals Newcastle, occupants of the third relegation spot, to pull level on points if they overcome Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium tonight.

But Yorke, knowing that Porto surprised Europe by claiming a point in their Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday night, does not think Sunderland should be thinking that losing to the league leaders is a foregone conclusion.

“United are going for the title and we are trying to survive. The games are crucial,” he said.

“Man United aren’t firing on all cylinders. They are going through a phase and we all do because the league is such a long and competitive race.

“They are very beatable at the moment. We know they have quality players to come in and they might see it as a good opportunity to use some good young players because we are in a very low period of our season.

“If they do let’s hope we are up for it and capitalise on it.”

Sunderland are without a win in six matches going into today’s meeting, having had an outside chance of closing the gap to the top seven before the worrying slump.

Yorke, though, is convinced that Sunderland have the quality within the squad to climb away from trouble before the alarm bells really do start to ring.

“Relegation is not an issue. It’s something we have to eradicate from everyone’s mind and there’s no exception to the rule,” said Yorke, hoping to return to Premier League action after a four-month absence. “We won’t accept anything less than Premier League football. That talk around the place ought to be eradicated from everyone’s mind.

“However, the table suggests we are in serious difficulty and we have to accept that. There are seven games ahead of us and they’re games we can win and get ourselves out of trouble.”

During the build up to the visit of United, Sunderland manager Ricky Sbragia monitored the performance of Porto at Old Trafford on Tuesday, while he also carefully examined United’s recent displays.

And while Italian Federico Macheda’s late, late winner against Aston Villa last Sunday kept United ahead of the rest, Sbragia will have been encouraged by the way Fulham and Liverpool brushed Sir Alex Ferguson’s men aside in recent weeks.

“It is like a jigsaw, you take one piece out put another one in. The young kid last Sunday is an example, whoever they bring in seems to play well, doesn’t have any nerves and they don’t find it difficult to play to their ability and they are all technically very good,” said Sbragia.

Sbragia knows that to stand a chance of overcoming the league champions he needs his strikers to be in full flow.

Neither Kenwyne Jones nor Djibril Cisse have scored since beating Stoke on February 7, while Cisse’s wait extends to his strike at Newcastle on February 1.

Cisse could be replaced by Jones today. Sbragia said: “I need a big performance from 11, not just Kenwyne.

“A lot of the talk is about Kenwyne and Cisse’s barren patch but we have not defended particularly well either.”