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.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. The positive attitude of both sides was to be admired, if not their defending, and Villa were back in front seven minutes before the interval. Sunderland were caught short at the back as Villa struck on the counter-attack, Matthew Lowton's perfect pass inviting a superb first-time touch and finish from Weimann.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.After the tedious surrendering of Premier League status offered up by Reading and Queens Park Rangers on Sunday, Villa and Sunderland approached this game with refreshing attacking intent.Ron Vlaar's thumping shot gave Villa the lead on the half-hour only for Danny Rose to equalise almost instantly for Sunderland.When the first goal arrived after 31 minutes, it came from an unlikely source. Sunderland struggled to clear under sustained Villa pressure and when the ball came to Vlaar 25 yards out, the powerful defender sent a low drive beyond the grasp of keeper Simon Mignolet with the help of a slight deflection off Carlos Cuellar.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.
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