Kolo Toure's Wigan slumped to the bottom of the Championship as Tony Mowbray's inspired substitutions put Sunderland in the play-off places.
After Will Keane cancelled out Everton loanee Ellis Simms' opener for the visitors, Mowbray sent on his big guns Pat Roberts and Ross Stewart and within three minutes Roberts won a penalty that Stewart converted – with Roberts later adding Sunderland's third himself.
Amad Diallo, on loan from Manchester United, completed the scoring in the final minute to leave Toure, a playing legend with Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool, still looking for his first win as a manager after four games.
A home debut for Wigan teenager Charlie Hughes lasted just 17 minutes after he failed to recover from a heavy challenge by Sunderland's Abdoullah Ba.
It was part of an intense opening that also saw Wigan's James McClean booked against his former club for flattening Edouard Michout.
The two teams are at opposite ends of the table and Sunderland made the formbook count by taking the lead after 19 minutes.
Ba had just been denied by a brilliant reflex save from Jamie Jones when the visitors recycled the ball.
Trai Hume dinked the ball from the right-hand side and the statuesque Ellis Simms only had to bow his head to nod in from close range.
It was Simms' seventh goal of the season and Everton boss Frank Lampard may be scratching his head why he's been loaned out with nobody still at Goodison Park scoring more than three.
Sunderland went close to making it 2-0 when Manchester United loanee Amad Diallo struck the underside of the crossbar from 12 yards.
But Wigan showed commendable spirit given their recent run and hauled themselves level after 42 minutes.
Goalkeeper Anthony Patterson could only parry a shot by Thelo Aasgaard and Will Keane was fox in the box to tap home the rebound for his ninth of the season.
Sunderland had a chance to regain the lead in the second half when Dan Neil pounced on a loose pass by Tendayi Dirakwa before Simms took a poor touch with the goal in sight.
At the other end, Luke O'Nien timed a tackle perfectly to deny Wigan's Callum Lang going all the way.
BlackCats boss Tony Mowbray made a decisive move just after the hour by introducing Roberts, Stewart and Alex Pritchard and the impact was almost immediate with Roberts tripped by Tom Naylor after 66 minutes and Stewart converting the penalty just inside the bottom left-hand corner.
Amidst all the celebrations however, their third change Pritchard limped off and himself had to be replaced by Jay Matete.
Roberts wrapped up the points in front of four thousand noisy Sunderland fans with a deflected shot from just inside the area after 85 minutes. And Wigan were drained of confidence by the time Diallo added the fourth goal his personal performance deserved in the final minute.