Class will out and while Chelsea still fail to convince on the road they were able to beat a resilient Sunderland, thanks to a fine display from Eden Hazard who made Chelsea's first and then added two himself.

"I don't like to praise an individual player," said Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, "but on this occasion I have to. From the first minute he was amazing."

However the Blues boss was critical of his side's defensive lapses.

"We failed in the basic things so in a game which we should have won clearly we were in trouble until the last minute because we conceded three ridiculous goals," he bemoaned.

The first came in the 14th minute and it set the tone for the match. The visitors failed to deal with Andrea Dossena's freekick and the ball fell to Jozy Altidore who was able to turn and fire home for his first Sunderland goal.

Three minutes later Hazard was able to chip in a cross for Frank Lampard to head home before the former turned goalscorer after the half-hour mark when he embarked upon a mazy run before unleashing a shot beyond Vito Mannone into the far corner.

Sunderland were back on level terms soon after the break when Chelsea failed to deal with Emanuele Giaccherini's corner and John O'Shea was on hand to fire into the roof of the net, only for Hazard to restore the visitors' lead after the hour.

With the Black Cats once again pushing for an equaliser, Demba Ba broke free and Phil Bardsley put through his own net with six minutes to play.

He made amends by scoring at the right end almost immediately but that was where the scoring ended.

Afterwards Sunderland boss Gus Poyet was proud of his team.

"If we can play like today and fight like today we can stay in the Premier League," he said.