Ayoze Perez has admitted that it will be "difficult" for Newcastle United to beat Sunderland in this weekend's Tyne-Wear derby at the Stadium of Light.
The Magpies have lost their last five matches against their local rivals, but did clinch their first win of the season last weekend, thrashing Norwich City 6-2.
The striker told The Chronicle: "The supporters are very passionate here. You can't say anything about Sunderland, it's a big rivalry. We have to take the three points there and everybody will be happy.
"It's a special one. We are trying to win there, and we want to do it as we did against Norwich, in a good way. It's going to be difficult but if we do our jobs and if we do that we can win there.
"We're all going into it feeling really happy. We needed [the win over Norwich]. We deserved to get the win and to climb away from the bottom of the Premier League table. That's a real lift, we got three points, got our first victory and we scored a lot of goals. We feel we can breathe again. We are looking forward to the derby."
Perez scored his second goal of the season against the Canaries last weekend.
Sian Cowper
