Aston Villa continued their excellent start to move third in the Premier League table as they secured a 2-1 win over Sunderland at Villa Park.

Sunderland looked on course for a repeat of last season's performance when they took an early lead through Djibril Cisse. But Villa fought back and took full advantage of defensive lapses by Sunderland to first equalize through Ashley Young in the 18th minute before John Carew scored the winner 12 minutes from half time.

With manager Roy Keane publicly speaking against his team's performance in the Carling Cup, Sunderland started the game brightly and were in the lead by the 10th minute when Steed Malbranque found Cisse with a brilliant through ball and the French striker coolly slotted the ball past Craig Gordon and into the net.

Stung by the goal, Villa stepped up the pressure and were rewarded with an equalizer eight minutes later with Young curling in a superbly hit free kick from 20 yards out. The England winger had a hand in the second goal as well when his free kick took a deflection off the Sunderland wall and Petrov found Carew with driven cross who made no mistake from close range.

Gordon pulled off two brilliant saves to deny Gabriel Agbonlahor and Gareth Barry in the closing stages of the first half as Villa increased the pressure on Sunderland in the search of a killer goal. Sunderland went on the offensive late in the game but were unable to break the Villa defense though Andy Reid came close to equalizing for the visitors three minutes from time but saw his 30-yard free kick narrowly miss the target.