Trai Hume's 17th‑minute own goal opened the floodgates, with Chris Wood, Morgan Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus all finding the net in a six-minute first-half burst at The Stadium of Light.

Elliot Anderson capped off the win with a goal in stoppage-time.

The victory gave Vitor Pereira's 16th-placed Forest, which is unbeaten in six successive league games, 39 points with four games to play.

It puts more pressure on West Ham United, which is 17th on 33 points, and Tottenham Hotspur, 18th on 31 points. 

Compounding Sunderland's misery, Dan Ballard's second-half goal was chalked off after the video assistant referee (VAR) determined that Nordi Mukiele tripped goalkeeper Matz Sels.

Forest's goalkeeper preserved the clean sheet with a terrific late save, stretching to tip Enzo Le Fee's blistering close-range strike over the bar.

The game was end-to-end in the opening minutes with decent chances for both sides before Forest broke the deadlock when Omari Hutchinson floated a ball from a corner to the far post for Igor Jesus to head towards goal. The ball pinged off the head of Hume on the way in for an own goal.

Wood struck in the 31st minute when Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs inexplicably passed the ball straight into his path. The ball bounced off the striker and fell to Gibbs-White, who drew Roefs out of his net before passing it back to Wood to slot home.

Gibbs-White added a goal of his own three minutes later when a ball to the back post found Jesus who headed it down for the midfielder, who unleashed a powerful shot into the bottom corner.

Jesus had the visiting fans in raptures when he knocked the ball into the far corner three minutes later, the ball glancing off Roef's outstretched arm on the way in.

Sunderland, which conceded four goals in a 4-3 loss to Aston Villa last week, was booed off the pitch at the break.

Forest's victory comes five days after it scored four second-half goals to beat Burnley 4-1.

"It's quite special," Gibbs-White said.

"I didn't think we could top the other day, but we go and do it. I think that's just credit to the boys, and shows the character in the dressing room and the belief and the confidence that we have right now going into games."

Anderson had missed Forest's UEFA Europa League quarter-final win over Porto earlier this month after the death of his mother Helen.

"Just really happy to score here and I just know that my mum would have been really proud of that one," he said.

Forest boss Vitor Pereira, however, believes there is still more work to do for his side during its final four league games in 2025-2026. 

"It isn't enough. We need more points, we need to win more games, and we need to keep our mentality," Pereira said.

"Five goals, a clean sheet, I'm very happy the players, the supporters, the club and the staff. We deserve it because we played a fantastic first half.

"We decided to come here and press them because we are fighting for our life. When we are fighting, we feel the need to do something, not to wait, we decided to press them and we did it very well and the fantastic goals from set plays.

"In the end one more goal, we did not concede, I am happy of course."

Sunderland suffered its joint-heaviest home defeat in the Football League, also losing 6-1 to both Newcastle United in December 1955 and to Birmingham City in April 1958.   

Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris said his side was reminded that it cannot let its standards drop in the Premier League.

"The big difference in intensity is clear. We started OK, but then progressively we felt that they were more involved, intense, pragmatic," Le Bris said. 

"They pressed well, and we were unable to build up under this pressure and the momentum shifted at that moment.

"They were clinical, they scored four goals in the first half. It was like a punch in our face.

"It is a strong reminder, we dropped our standards maybe 10 per cent, and we were punished, which was the case today. We were not at their level, no excuses."