French centre-back pairing William Gallas and Marcel Desailly sunk the dogged resistance of relegation-haunted Sunderland with three second-half goals.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink popped up with a trademark blaster seconds from time to add insult to the wounds of Howard Wilkinson's side.
Up to the 58th minute, Sunderland seemed to have stifled the Chelsea attack. However, they produced the cardinal sin of ball watching and failed to spot Gallas lurking at the far post when Graeme Le Saux whipped over a deep right-wing cross.
The Frenchman made no mistake by firing a full blooded right-footer past goalkeeper Jurgen Macho.
One would have thought Sunderland would have learned from the mistake, but they didn't and six minutes from time, Le Saux's deep right byline corner was missed by Macho and defenders alike and an unmarked Desailly scooped the ball into the net at the far post.
By now Sunderland were a beaten side and destined for a bottom three spot in the Premiership.
Hasselbaink, restored to the starting line-up by Claudio Ranieri had a miserable game by his standards but managed to grab a last minute goal.
The mercurial talent that is Gianfranco Zola, who teased the Sunderland defence all afternoon, fed Hasselbaink from the left. The Dutchman took two touches before firing home a left-foot blaster that gave Macho no chance.
Chelsea were by and large dominate in possession, without the cutting edge in the first half. Sunderland, marshalled well by Phil Babb at the back and Gavin McCann in midfield kept the Londoners at bay.
At Bay that is until the schoolboy mistake of ball watching let in the ever-impressive Gallas to open the scoring. From then on, there was only ever one winner