Premier League: Sunderland 3 Blackburn 0

Sunderland gave manager Steve Bruce a belated Christmas present as they thumped a lacklustre Blackburn 3-0 at the Stadium of Light.

Back-to-back defeats for the Black Cats – to Manchester United and Blackpool – were swiftly put behind them after they took an early lead through Danny Welbeck.

And Sunderland never looked in danger of losing their advantage, with Rovers toothless in attack and the home team rampant going forward as Darren Bent and Asamoah Gyan completed the victory in the second half.

Both teams went into the games without key players, but Bruce would have been happy that on-loan Manchester United striker Welbeck had recovered sufficiently from a neck injury to take his place in the side.

Sunderland took the lead in the 10th minute when the Blackburn defence failed to clear Egyptian winger Ahmed Al Muhammadi’s cross, and Welbeck’s shot beat Blackburn goalkeeper Mark Bunn via a wicked deflection off defender Ryan Nelsen.

Darren Bent doubled Sunderland’s advantage 10 minutes later and once again Al Muhhamadi was the architect.

This time the right-winger produced the perfect outswinging cross and Bent got ahead of his marker to glance a header down and across Bunn to score his first goal in six games.

Rovers barely featured as an attacking force either before or after the break, although they perked up in the second-half when striker Benjani came on as a 46th minute substitute.

But after another slow start, Sunderland rapidly went through the gears again and Rovers swiftly found themselves under siege.

Darren Bent could have had a second-half hat-trick, but on each occasion he shot wide when well placed – including one particular howler when he missed from four yards out in the centre of goal.

Record signing Gyan completed the victory after coming on as a substitute, receiving the ball from Jordan Henderson before cutting inside his marker and curling beautifully-judged ball around Dunn which went in off the keeper’s left-hand post.

The victory takes Sunderland up to sixth on the table, ahead of Bolton Wanderers who lost to Liverpool this afternoon.