JACK COLBACK has insisted there is no panic in the Sunderland camp, despite losing their fourth game of the season at Arsenal on Sunday.

The Black Cats have won just once all campaign, and went behind after only 29 seconds at the Emirates. More alarmingly, Steve Bruce's record in 2011 is relegation form.

Out of 26 games, Sunderland have won seven, losing 14 and drawing five, earning 26 points from a possible 78.

But while Colback admits the team are under pressure to deliver results, the midfielder believes they can turn the corner and has backed Bruce to be the man that leads such a turnaround.

The 21-year-old said: "You go into every game feeling under pressure, the fans want to win every game and that's to be expected.

"It's been a tricky start but I think a few of the games could easily have gone the other way, and it would have been a different story.

"Nobody's panicking, everybody's calm and everybody's completely behind the manager. We can turn it around."

Sunderland had the chances to go ahead against Arsenal after Seb Larsson's free kick cancelled out Robin van Persie's 29th second opener, but Colback and Lee Cattermole both fluffed their lines in front of goal, and Colback believes that such profligacy cost the Black Cats dear.

He said: "We're very disappointed, we thought we had done enough to come away with at least a point, but Arsenal had a lot of the ball and obviously that's to be expected. We created chances ourselves, and we're very disappointed to come away with a defeat.

"I should have scored for one, Catts' header - the keeper made a great save - these are the sorts of chances that we need to put away at a place like Arsenal. If you miss chances like that you are going to struggle."

Van Persie's first goal came after Sunderland's players had put long hours in on the training ground in the wake of conceding twice in the opening five minutes against West Brom a fortnight ago.

And while Larsson's goal gave the Black Cats hope, Colback was disappointed that the lack of discipline that led to van Persie's winner cost them at least a point.

Colback explained: "We had worked on it in the international break, and the gaffer reiterated that before the game, don't give them any lift because they're under a bit of pressure themselves, but we couldn't have wished for a worse start.

"We worked hard to get back in the game at 1-1 and we worked hard in the second half, but it was disappointing to give away so many free-kicks on the edge of the box and finally we were punished."

Sunderland sit in 17th place in the Premier League table above Bolton, who the Black Cats visit on Saturday. Defeat would take them into the bottom three.

Nevertheless, Colback is optimistic of Sunderland's chances at the Reebok Stadium.

He said: "We should be picking up a result against the likes of Bolton, we went there last year and won the game. We'll be going there again with confidence that we can take three points again. We need to pick up points now because the gap is getting bigger and bigger between us and the top ten, which is where we want to be."

Colback made his seventh appearance of the season on Sunday. And after a summer of recruitment that saw Bruce invest in midfielders Larsson, Craig Gardner and David Vaughan, Colback is pleased that he has retained his place in the starting line-up.

He said: "The gaffer brought in a lot of players over the summer and that's going to happen at every Premier League club, there's lots of quality around and I was always going to be up for the battle to get some games.

"I thought I did well in pre-season and the manager's given me the chance. All I want to do is start matches and improve in every game I play."