Given the respective form of the teams going into this game - Everton unbeaten in six, with five wins, Sunderland with a solitary victory in their previous 13 matches - a home win was not the hardest result to predict.

What was unexpected, however, was quite how bad Sunderland were going to be. Roy Keane’s team was not so much embarrassed as utterly humiliated. Everton were good, but they were allowed to be.

“You have to learn quickly in the Premier League and Everton took great advantage of our shortcomings,” said Keane after the match. “Everton have three or four really outstanding players. It is a major setback to get a real beating like that but I trust the players to learn from it and I have to learn from it myself. It’s hard to take, but we lose as a team and I picked the team and sorted the tactics so I have no problem taking responsibility for what happened.”

It was not so much Everton manager David Moyes’s starting XI that caught the eye as his bench, which included Andy Johnson, fit again after a seven-game absence. That the good run has coincided with Johnson’s unavailability has not gone unremarked by Everton supporters, and the fluidity and effectiveness of a formation with Ayegbeni Yakubu at its head, Tim Cahill playing off him, and Mikel Arteta and Leon Osman quick to offer width was immediately apparent.

Only a fine block from Paul McShane prevented Cahill putting Everton ahead from Arteta’s cross in the seventh minute, but the room and time that was afforded the Australian midfielder to bring the ball down, turn and shoot, did not suggest the Sunderland defence was going to prove an impenetrable barrier.

Sure enough, it only took another five minutes for Yakubu to open the scoring. Faced with a simple clearance of Tim Howard’s long punt forward, McShane managed to do no more than divert the ball into Yakubu’s path as the centre-forward ran on into the penalty area. His shot was half-blocked by Danny Higginbotham, sliding across to cover, but the ball bounced over Sunderland goalkeeper Craig Gordon and into the net.

If that was unfortunate for the Black Cats, Everton’s second shortly afterwards could only be put down to rank bad defending. Yakubu laid the ball off to Arteta, whose short, neat pass inside Ian Harte freed Phil Neville.

Neville’s cross picked out Cahill, and again the Sunderland defenders stood off as he brought the ball down and thumped it beyond Gordon from no more than six yards.

Sunderland’s only effort up to this point was a long-range drive from the willing Kenwyne Jones, but Grant Leadbitter should have done better when Howard pawed at a cross on the far post. With the goal gaping, Leadbitter headed onto the roof of the net.

If the incident suggested that Sunderland were not entirely out of the game, a third Everton goal just before the break appeared to nail the coffin lid down.

A fine goal it was too, Nuno Valente and Pienaar twice exchanging passes down the left before the latter side-footed the ball high beyond Gordon’s left hand and into the top corner.

Remarkably, there was still time for Sunderland to give themselves a glimmer of hope; Howard pushed Leadbitter’s curling shot only as far as Carlos Edwards, and though the goalkeeper, helped by the post, did well to stop the follow-up, Jones played the ball back for Dwight Yorke to score from eight yards.

It was Yorke’s first positive contribution, and given his substitution, and that of fellow midfielder Dickson Etuhu immediately after the break, there was no doubting where Keane felt that at least some of his team’s problems were. He was right, to the extent that any changes could only improve matters. But it was the home team that continued to create the better chances – and take them. Yakubu left McShane floundering, only to pull his shot wide before Cahill showed rather more composure, beating McShane and drawing Gordon forward before slipping the ball beyond the goalkeeper.

Yakubu then met with little opposition when he got his second after Osman’s shot was saved, Johnson, brought on with 15 minutes remaining, left poor McShane in his wake in the chase for a ball over the top before beating Gordon with typical assurance.

Then Osman, with five minutes remaining, scored the pick of the seven, beating at least four attempted tackles during a run from the halfway line which ended with just the keeper to beat. To nobody’s surprise, he did exactly that. Keane looked on, stony-faced.

Star man: Tim Cahill (Everton)

Player ratings: Everton: Howard 5, Neville 6, Yobo 6 (Jagielka 79min, 5), Lescott 6, Valente 7, Arteta 7, Osman 7, Carsley 7, Pienaar 7, Cahill 8 (Anichebe 74min, 5), Yakubu 7 (Johnson 74min, 7).

Sunderland: Gordon 4, Whitehead 4, McShane 3, Higginbotham 4, Harte 3, Edwards 4, Yorke 4 (Collins 46min, 5), Etuhu 4 (Wallace 46min, 5), Leadbitter 5, Chopra 4 (Cole 67min, 5), Jones 5.