Sunderland Vs Aston Villa: Player Ratings

Vito Mannone - 7

Another fine performance from the stopper. Unlucky to not help himself to another clean sheet.

Ondrej Celustka - 4

He was kind of 'there' without ever really being there, if you get my meaning. A peripheral figure in the game.

Valentin Roberge - 5

Did okay against a lively front pairing without ever really looking like containing them.

Mobido Diakite - 6

Similar to Roberge, but slightly better equipped, physically, to meet the challenge.

Phil Bardsley - 6

Brilliant clearance off the line, but far too easily shown inside in the final third.

Lee Cattermole - 2

A horrendous error for the decisive goal and one he came very close to repeating moments later. Very poor performance from the stand-in skipper.

Jack Colback - 5

An industrious little scamp but contributed nothing of tangible value to the performance.

Ki Sung-Yueng - 6

As per usual, the shining light of the midfield. It wasn't one of his better games, though. Far, far from it.

Ji Dong-Won - 5

Like many others, spent a little too much time on the periphery of the game. Did enough to suggest he has something to offer, however.

Emanuele Giaccherini - 2

An infuriatingly frustrating performance. Atrocious decision-making in good areas was the principle reason behind this result and the Italian was the chief culprit. With his pedigree, he should be doing much much better.

Steven Fletcher - 4

Missed a glorious early chance to establish a valuable lead. Like the other strikers, though, it's tough to blame him too much when everyone behind him would rather welly the ball into the stands from 30 yards than actually try to create something.

Fabio Borini - 6

Nice cameo, all-in-all, including one piece of brilliant desire to defend a counter-attack. Becoming a bit of a favourite.

Jozy Altidore - 5

Did okay after coming on. Another victim of the midfield's private game of 'who can be the biggest and most wasteful knob-head?'.

Adam Johnson - 5

Didn't really do much.

Man Of The Match: Vito Mannone

The action in the game was a little skewered by the fact that a gift of a lead allowed Villa to play to their game plan and plunder the Sunderland half at will on the counter attack, but if not for Mannone things could have been a lot worse.

And there's more to come, so hit up our Stream HERE on a regular basis for all the reaction you can handle on this one.