Aston Villa 6-1 Sunderland.
Christian Benteke's second-half hat-trick lifted Aston Villa's hopes
of Premier League survival and brought Sunderland's revival under new
manager Paolo Di Canio to an abrupt halt as the Black Cats were thrashed
at Villa Park.
Di Canio described this vital meeting of the strugglers
as Sunderland's "Champions League Final" - but it turned into a
nightmare as they were dragged right back into the relegation fight
along with north-east neighbours Newcastle.
The home victory, and emphatic winning margin, also made it a bad night for Wigan as they now lie five points adrift of Villa, albeit with a game in hand.
Villa's goals, coupled with Newcastle's 6-0 home defeat by Liverpool, also mean the Midlanders leapfrog Alan Pardew's side on goal difference.
And to make matters worse for Sunderland, the influential Stephane Sessegnon was given a straight red card in the second half for a challenge on Yacouba Sylla, prematurely ending his season at this vital time.
Ron Vlaar's thumping shot gave Villa the lead on the half-hour only for Danny Rose to equalise almost instantly for Sunderland.
Andreas Weimann restored Villa's advantage before half-time to set the stage for the powerful Benteke to demonstrate once more the quality that has made him such an outstanding purchase by manager Paul Lambert following his £7m summer arrival from Belgian side Genk.
The 22-year-old striker tormented the Sunderland defence with a 17-minute hat-trick and Gabriel Agbonlahor added further polish to Villa's goal difference with the sixth two minutes from time.
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