Sunderland 3-1 Stoke City: Player Ratings

Vito Mannone - 7

Very solid and dependable and very little bounced away from him.

Billy Jones - 8

Another really excellent performance from the full back. A far more restrained performance that we saw last week but it was exactly what was required.

Santiago Vergini - 9

Immaculate. Stoke are still a physical side and all concerns over his suitability for a central defensive role in England must now have been utterly dismissed.

John O'Shea - 7

He was good and solid, but didn't stand-out.

Patrick van Aanholt - 9

Looks an absolute snip and a peach of a summer signing. Seems to see danger nice and quickly.

Lee Cattermole - 8

Very good, as ever. Pick of the midfield.

Seb Larsson - 7

Off the ball he was industrious as ever but dithered far too much on it for my tastes.

Jordi Gomez - 7

Very good in the first half but a bit sloppy at times after the break.

Will Buckley - 6

Just didn't quite work for him, though the referee really didn't help him with some of the things he was letting go.

Steven Fletcher - 9

Fletch is back! That, for me, was Fletcher's best ever performance a Sunderland shirt. Any other day he'd have probably breezed to our man of the match award.

Connor Wickham - 9

Man of the match - just.

Adam Johnson - 6

Didn't really do much other than float set pieces harmlessly into the goalkeeper's hands. Injected some positivity towards the end, though.

Liam Bridcutt - 6

Steady-Eddie.

Jack Rodwell - 6

Nice... errrrrm... 'dummy'.

The Lee Cattermole Award For Man Of The Match - Connor Wickham

The youngster shades it for our newly-named Man of the Match award with a supremely powerful performance. Fletcher outscored him on the day, but the run Wickham produced for the third goal was like a runaway train. Superman himself could have been asked to stop him and he'd have probably brought the whole Justice League along with him for some back-up. Wow.