Sunderland will enter 2017 inside the Premier League relegation zone after suffering a 4-1 defeat at Burnley in Saturday afternoon's incident-filled contest at Turf Moor.
David Moyes's side remain 18th in the table, two points behind 17th-placed Crystal Palace, but Burnley have moved onto 23 points after recording their seventh league win of the campaign.
Chances were few and far between in the opening 30 minutes of action, but Burnley made the breakthrough in the 31st minute when Andre Gray, who finished with a hat-trick, burst through on goal before slotting the ball past Vito Mannone in the Sunderland net.
Gray's second and third of the afternoon came in the space of two second-half minutes as he fired into an empty net in the 51st minute, before latching on to an Ashley Barnes pass and finishing into the bottom corner in the 53rd as the visitors stared at a 13th league defeat of the campaign.
It got worse for Sunderland in the 67th minute when Barnes made it 4-0 from the penalty spot after Sebastian Larsson clumsily brought Scott Arfield to the floor inside the home side's box.
Sunderland had one back in the 71st minute when Jermain Defoe converted from close range after on-loan Manchester United attacker Adnan Januzaj had found the experienced striker, but it was purely a consolation on what was a miserable afternoon for the Black Cats.
Burnley now have the third-best home record in the league having collected 22 points from 11 fixtures on home soil, while defeat for Sunderland was their eighth on their travels in the 2016-17 campaign.
Matt Law
