Sunderland keeper Costel Pantilimon has praised his side's improvement at the back under the tenure of Sam Allardyce.

The Black Cats had failed to keep a clean sheet in the opening eight games of the campaign under the charge of Dick Advocaat, but since Allardyce's arrival in October the team have had three shutouts, which have all resulted in victories.

Pantilimon has insisted that he and his teammates need to continue their resilience to push Sunderland further away from the relegation zone following their back-to-back wins over Crystal Palace and Stoke City.

He told the club's official website: "It was fantastic for the team and myself to get six points and two clean sheets. It is important for our defence that we don't concede because we've been working hard and we have improved a lot.

"We know that if we keep a clean sheet someone will score and on Saturday it was two fantastic finishes. Stoke hadn't conceded since September and they are a very good side which they showed during the first half, but we were stronger in the key moments and it wrapped up a very good week for us.

"Winning back to back is vital in this league and it is important to keep winning as many games as we can; we know it is going to be tough in the next couple of weeks but we have shown that we have the quality. We put everything on the pitch on Saturday and we will do the same next weekend."

Sunderland face Arsenal in their Premier League clash on Saturday.