Sunderland 0 Aston Villa 1

Gabriel Agbonlahor ensured a miserable start to 2014 for luckless Sunderland as Aston Villa claimed a 1-0 victory on Wearside.

The 27-year-old, who scored the only goal in a 1-0 win at the Stadium of Light last season, capitalised on Lee Cattermole's calamitous error to ensure victory with a 15th-minute strike.

However, the Black Cats could count themselves desperately unfortunate not to have emerged with a point after substitute Fabio Borini had what looked to be a perfectly good 52nd-minute equaliser ruled out for offside.

It was a first win in six attempts in the Barclays Premier League for Villa, who passed up a series of late chances to do so more comfortably, but it left Gus Poyet's men stranded at the foot of the table with their survival hopes having suffered a serious setback.