There is an inevitability about what will happen if Amr Zaki continues to score at his present rate, but even that depressing thought will not spoil the buzz that the Egypt forward’s fine start has created at the JJB Stadium.

Having hit a post, Zaki, who is on a season-long loan from Zamalek, the Egyptian club, cancelled out Titus Bramble’s own goal with a late effort against Sunderland to take his tally to four in four league games.

Even with modern-day scouting networks, Steve Bruce, the Wigan manager, who struck gold last season with Luis Antonio Valencia, the Ecuadorean, and Wilson Palacios, the Honduran, is managing to come up with relatively cheap signings that are taking English football by surprise.

Zaki can be added to that list, but Bruce will be hoping that, like Valencia and Palacios, he will stay out of the clutches of Barclays Premier League predators for more than one season. “I’d never heard of him, so someone’s in trouble,” Roy Keane, the Sunderland manager, joked.

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It may be all change in Wigan’s attack, but the same unforced errors remain a strong possibility with Bramble playing at the back and so it proved against Sunderland. Moving towards his goal, the defender headed Steed Malbranque’s cross into his own net with 15 minutes gone.

Djibril Cissé should have made the game safe in the second period, but shot straight at Chris Kirkland, the Wigan goalkeeper. Zaki’s glancing header from a cross by Jason Koumas flew wide off the post and Craig Gordon palmed away Olivier Kapo’s drive before a cross from Maynor Figueroa, another prospect from Honduras, was stabbed in by Zaki.

There was still time for Lee Cattermole to be shown a second yellow card for a lunge at Teemu Tainio and, while Bruce had no complaints about the decision, he was not about to criticise Bramble, either. “He’s had his fair share of mistakes and when he makes one, it’s punished,” the manager said.

Wigan Athletic (4-4-2): C Kirkland 6 – M Melchiot 6, E Boyce 7, T Bramble 5, M Figueroa 8 – L A Valencia 7, L Cattermole 6, W Palacios 6 (sub: O Kapo, 64min 7), K Kilbane 5 (sub: J Koumas, 56 7) – A Zaki 7 (sub: P Scharner, 90), E Heskey 6. Substitutes not used: M Pollitt, M Brown, D de Ridder, H Camara. Booked: Cattermole. Sent off: Cattermole.

Sunderland (4-4-2): C Gordon 7 – P Chimbonda 6, N Nosworthy 8, A Ferdinand 7, G McCartney 6 – S Malbranque 7 (sub: D Murphy, 76), D Whitehead, T Tainio, K Richardson – D Cissé, E-H Diouf. Substitutes not used: M Fulop, P Bardsley, D Collins, G Leadbitter, A Reid, D Healy. Booked: Diouf.

Referee R Styles Attendance 18,015