Chris Hughton's men exceeded all expectations by finishing comfortably in mid-table following promotion last season, but find themselves in the relegation zone and without a win in their opening seven matches.

However, Bennett believes the club's predicament will serve to get the best out of his team-mates, insisting their fighting instincts will come to the fore.

"People did not think we would stay up last season, but we did. The more people go against this team, the better we seem to be," he told Sky Sports.

"We will come out fighting – like a dog. If you back us into a corner, we will always bite our way out of it.

"If people keep doing that then brilliant because we will hopefully prove them wrong, like we did last year."

Hughton's side have been on the wrong end of thrashings from Liverpool and Chelsea in their past two games and, with Arsenal up next at Carrow Road, Bennett could be forgiven for fearing the worst.

However, the former Brighton man is refusing to be disheartened by recent results and is optimistic the club can start putting points on the board.

"We have a great belief and togetherness in the squad. Hopefully we can start to put that into three points. We have had a few games which we deserved to win, but that did not happen," Bennett said.

"It is never nice to lose and you are really disappointed, but you have to clear it out of your mind.

"There are always hard times, like we are going through at the minute. We know it has not been good enough, but are all working hard on the training ground."