The Sunderland boss admitted he'd be pleased not to see some of his players for a while after last Sunday's 3-0 home collapse against Manchester City.

But the six intervening days don't seem to have mellowed the demanding Irishman, who counts the loss as every bit as bad as last season's hammerings by Manchester United and Everton.

United inflicted a 4-0 defeat on Keane's men at the Stadium of Light while the Wearsiders were humiliated 7-1 at Goodison Park.

Keane said: "The Man City result isn't out of my system yet – it won't be for a long, long time.

"That defeat will stay with me, just like the defeats we had last season in the cups against Wigan and Luton, losing 4-0 at home to Manchester United and 7-1 at Everton.

"They'll stay in my system forever, really.

"I was very disappointed immediately after the Man City game, and I still am now.

"We can try to dress it up any way we want, but we still gave three very bad goals away.

"It's not acceptable. In the Premiership, you can't give goals like those away and expect to get away with it.

"We had the same thing a couple of times last season, too, when we had really bad days.

"Hopefully we can put it to bed and focus on the Wigan game next weekend.

"But if we defend like that again at Wigan, we will get beaten – I guarantee it."

It could be a new-look Black Cats rearguard next Saturday at the JJB Stadium with latest signings Anton Ferdinand and George McCartney hoping to make their debuts.

Keane said: "Anton played in a practice match this week, and hopefully he will be in contention for the Wigan game – and George should be too."

Keane waved goodbye to 15 players on international duty this week, and does not expect most of them to return until next Thursday.

It means there will be little time for the signings to work with a lot of their new team-mates before heading to Wigan.

Keane added: "We've got a lot of players away on international duty, and we travel down to Wigan on Friday.
"We won't really get one decent session with them before the Wigan game.

"I will have a look at them when they come back but if there is any doubt in my mind that any of them have not had time to recover, I won't take any risks."