Raul Jimenez scored twice to inflict Sunderland's second consecutive home defeat as Fulham ran out deserved 3-1 victors.
Regis Le Bris' side had been on a defiant 12-game unbeaten run at the Stadium of Light until Liverpool visited a fortnight ago and have now succumbed to a second home loss in as many outings, punished for a series of uncharacteristic mistakes.
Jimenez was the beneficiary for Fulham, nodding Alex Iwobi's corner beyond Robin Roefs, completely unmarked, before then rolling in a calm penalty - won by Calvin Bassey and awarded after VAR review - seven minutes after the opener. Both scenarios were entirely avoidable.
Those two goals looked set to earn Fulham all three points before a clumsy Ryan Sessegnon challenge gifted Enzo Le Fee a chance to convert from the spot, and he did so emphatically. The reprieve offered only a flicker of hope, though, as Iwobi scored Fulham's third on the counter not long after.
The breakaway was engineered by the in-form Harry Wilson and finished wonderfully by Iwobi from a tight angle, only the third time in his Premier League career that he has both scored and assisted in the same game.
Fulham end a run of three straight defeats to rise to tenth, displacing Newcastle in the Premier League's top half, while Sunderland are a comfortable twelfth, surely already assured of their place in the top flight for next season.