Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has rubbished talk of a mini-crisis on Wearside despite his side suffering a difficult week on the pitch and in the treatment room.

A 2-1 loss at Birmingham last weekend was followed by a penalty shoot-out defeat by Aston Villa in the Carling Cup on Tuesday and heading into Saturday's visit of West Ham in the Premier League, the Black Cats boss has a number of injury concerns.

Bruce admitted he read the riot act to his side after they followed a well-deserved home win over Liverpool with a poor performance at St Andrew's last weekend but insists he has seen enough from his side recently to believe they are still on track.

"I thought we played really well against Villa on Tuesday and we were disappointed to go out," he said.

"Of the last four games we've played, against Villa, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester United (a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford) we have gone head to head with three of them, and played extremely well.

"The disappointing one for me was Birmingham but we're playing well at home and if we can get to 19 points with 10 games on the board that's a great start to the season and puts you on course to be in the top 10 quite comfortably. So we have to be pleased with that. It's a big, big game for us against West Ham."

Bruce insisted when he arrived from Wigan last summer that a change of mentality was needed after the club spent several years fluctuating between the top flight and the Championship.

And he admits the stark contrast in performance between the Liverpool win and Birmingham defeat is an example of that.

He said: "As I said when I walked through the door here, I have got to change the whole mental attitude of this club.

"Over the last however-many years it has been up and down and we've got to try to change that if we can. We've got to try to copy the likes of Aston Villa and Everton, who have been there repeatedly in the Premier League and in and around the top 10 for years.

"To do that you have to have a certain mentality and it was probably typical of this club over the last few years to play so well against Manchester United and Liverpool then go to Birmingham and don't show up.

"That's what we've got to change and get that level of consistency where that sort of performance is not acceptable.

"To do that we change slightly. I can do one of two things; I can change the formation or I can change the personnel.

"Make no mistake, if I get another performance like that then I won't put up with it. It's as simple as that. I've told the players that I can't accept it if we go and not put a shift in like against Birmingham.

"So we got a reaction which we had looked for but it was at home, which obviously helps. It has gone, we played really well in midweek and if we reach the standard we did against Villa against West Ham we'll be okay.

"If we slip backwards, like we did against Birmingham, then we'll have a tough afternoon."

Bruce is set to be boosted by the return of top-scorer Darren Bent from a knee injury but he has doubts over the likes of George McCartney, Bolo Zenden, Phil Bardsley and John Mensah for the Hammers clash.