Sunderland win, flee drop zone

London - Sunderland ground out a 2-0 win at Everton on Saturday to climb out of the Premier League's bottom three and apply heavy pressure to the teams fighting for survival around them.

Danny Graham put Sunderland ahead after 54 minutes when the striker was in the right place to deflect Jordi Gomez's shot past Tim Howard and record his first goal for the club he joined over two years ago.

Everton pushed for an equaliser but Sunderland made sure of the three points when Jermain Defoe turned in Adam Johnson's deflected shot with five minutes remaining.