Sunderland's record signing admits the last two games sum up the Black Cats campaign – euphoria one week followed by soul-searching and disappointment the next.

Having sealed their top flight survival by beating Middlesbrough, Roy Keane's side again showed their Jekyll and Hyde character by falling to a 2-0 loss with a poor display at Bolton on Saturday.

And he hopes the squad can lift themselves on last time to repay their fans in the final game of the season at home to Arsenal next Sunday.

Gordon said: "It's been a steep learning curve for all of us this season.

"We've been so up and down and have continuously had to pick ourselves up from disappointments.

"It's hard when you have to keep doing that and the disappointments have mostly been away from home.

"Saturday was pretty typical in that we didn't get a good start and ended up chasing the game.

"We're not the only side in this league that seems to do OK at home and poorly away. The teams down at the bottom end of the league have all suffered from that.

"If we knew exactly what would solve it, we would have put it right long ago.

"But we've one more game left and one more week to lift ourselves."

There were no surprises from Bolton, who looked for the long ball at every opportunity and worked tenaciously to regain possession.

"We won't be the first team to struggle against Bolton's style," said Gordon.

"They put a lot of crosses into the box and that's where their goals came from.

"They press very hard when they haven't got the ball and sometimes it's difficult not to get sucked into playing the same game as they do by knocking the ball into channels.

"The result was not down to lack of desire or effort on our part. You wouldn't say Bolton had loads of chances, but the difference was that they managed to convert a couple of them and we couldn't."

Arsenal will arrive at the Stadium of Light with nothing left to fight for. They're out of the title race and secure in a Champions League qualifying spot.

"The Bolton and Wigan away games aside, we've done pretty well against the sides around us this season," added Gordon.

"But we've not taken a point from the top five clubs in the league and this is the last chance for us to do it.

"Our support has been magnificent this season and it would be nice to send them away with something to be proud of."