Sunderland midfielder Sebastian Larsson believes that knocking Chelsea out of the Capital One Cup will give his side's season a "big lift".

The Black Cats progressed into the semi-finals of the competition on Tuesday by grabbing a 2-1 win over the Blues at the Stadium of Light in extra time.

Despite going strong in the cup competition, the North-East outfit remain at the bottom of the Premier League table.

"Listen, it can never be a bad thing to win a cup or get as far as you can," the Northern Echo quotes Larsson as saying. "That's just a bad excuse for getting relegated. When people say 'you'll have extra games' and all that, I don't believe it.

"It's easy to play football games if you're winning them and much tougher if you're losing them so the extra games don't matter. This will give us all a big lift and the supporters too."

Sunderland will take on Norwich City on Saturday.

Written by
Danielle Joynson