Boro's Downing insists hometown club can grasp a Premier League lifeline

Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Burnley at the Riverside Stadium left the Teessiders six points adrift of safety with seven games remaining, the next of them against Arsenal with Manchester City, Chelsea, Southampton and Liverpool awaiting them in their final four fixtures.

The picture looks bleak for Boro, who have won just four of their 31 league games to date, but 32-year-old Downing is convinced they can still escape the drop.

He said: “Yes, 100 per cent, 100 per cent. Other teams are still losing, we get a point – I know we’re a point closer and we could have done with three, but there’s a long way to go yet, a lot of twists and turns. We have got big teams to come here, but do they fancy coming here? Well, we’ll soon find out. We generally play well against the top teams, so I’m looking forward to it.

“It’s a big challenge, we know that, we know what we need to do, so we just carry on and the positives from today we take into the Arsenal game.”

Downing’s former Boro team-mate and manager Gareth Southgate, now in charge of England, was at the Riverside to witness the latest chapter in an increasingly uncomfortable tale, and it might have stirred some unwelcome memories for him.

Eight years ago, he was in charge as they fought, ultimately unsuccessfully, for their top-flight lives.

Worryingly for present incumbent Steve Agnew, Southgate’s team had 27 points, three more than they have currently, at the same stage and collected just five of the last 21 they contested to slip out of the division along with West Bromwich and Newcastle.

Boro’s plight might have looked slightly healthier had two key moments not gone against them.

England defender Michael Keane was possibly fortunate not to have been sent off after slipping as he chased Patrick Bamford and felling the striker as he homed in on goal with Matthew Lowton clearing Downing’s resulting 86th-minute free-kick off the line. Earlier, goalkeeper Tom Heaton had produced a stunning reaction save to claw out Alvaro Negredo’s blistering volley.

Middlesbrough: Valdes, Ayala, Bernardo (Bamford 83), Gibson, Barragan, Clayton, Leadbitter, Forshaw, Downing, Stuani (Negredo 58), Gestede (Traore 69). Unused substitutes: Fischer, Guzan, de Roon, Fry.

Burnley: Heaton, Lowton, Keane, Mee, Ward, Boyd, Barton, Hendrick, Brady, Barnes (Tarkowski 90), Gray (Vokes 62). Unused substitutes: Flanagan, Westwood, Pope, Agyei, Arfield.

Referee: M Atkinson (W Yorkshire).