PAOLO DI CANIO has admitted Sunderland's players were guilty of chronic complacency when they slumped to their heaviest defeat of the season on Monday night.

The Black Cats boss held a training-ground inquest into the 6-1 reverse on Tuesday morning in which he asked each and every player to provide an honest assessment of what went wrong against Aston Villa.

The common consensus was that back-to-back wins over Newcastle and Everton had bred some over-confidence, which was exacerbated by last weekend's results, the majority of which went in Sunderland's favour.

As a result, Di Canio's squad took to the field at Villa Park believing they could cruise to the three points that would have effectively have guaranteed their Premier League status, a failing the Italian is adamant will not be repeated when Stoke visit the Stadium of Light on Monday.

“On Tuesday, I wanted to test them,” said Di Canio. “So I spoke to them all – young fella, adult fella, player with big background, player with smaller background, foreign players who maybe don't speak a lot. I told them to tell me what they think.

“They had to do that in front of their team-mates. It doesn't mean you point the finger at other people, but you have to give your opinion. There was a common ground there. Everybody had the same idea and opinion.

“It is clear that our poison was too much confidence. They were thinking, 'Now we are the best' - but that is not the case. There was a very deep analysis and a common view.

“We were stupid because we probably thought we were up after the weekend results. But I'm not worried about a repeat because in the next three games we are going to perform in the way we know we have to.”

The irony of Monday night's humiliation was that while the final result was comfortably Sunderland's worst of the season, there was little to choose between the Black Cats and their opponents before the interval.

Sunderland were only trailing 2-1 at the break, and had created enough opportunities to suggest they were capable of turning things around in the second half.

However, when Di Canio heard one of his players talking at half-time about what was needed before the end of the season rather than what was required to engineer an improvement in the remaining 45 minutes, the alarm bells were ringing. And sure enough, Sunderland's second-half display lived up to his worst fears.

“At half-time, one of my players mentioned something about needing to get three points between now and the end of the season,” said Di Canio. “They said, 'We are not safe yet', rather than talking about what they needed to do in the second half to come back in the game.

“That is something you pick up on when you have a background as a footballer. It's natural to say, 'Lads, it's only 2-1, let's stay in the game', rather than saying, 'Lads, we need three points, we are not safe yet'.

“They were talking about the future, and that means that previously in the dressing room, there must have been discussions about the fact that Wigan and Newcastle had not won. Maybe we took the job in hand too lightly.

“I asked him, 'Why did you say that?' I tested my player, not because I wanted to point the finger, but because I wanted to know about their mentality. Now I can read them better and that game helped me a lot in terms of the future.”

Having seen his players' best side in the back-to-back wins over Newcastle and Everton, Di Canio has now witnessed some of the failings that have left the Black Cats fighting for their Premier League lives in the final three weeks of the season.

Any pretence that everything was rosy despite Martin O'Neill's dismissal has been demolished, and while no one associated with Sunderland wanted to finish on the wrong end of a humbling five-goal defeat, the emphatic nature of the scoreline might prove beneficial if it prevents a papering over of the cracks.

“Don't say I'm happy that we lost 6-1, but in the long run, what happened could be good for the development of the team,” said Di Canio. “If we'd lost 2-1 with exactly the same performance, we would have had even more problems in my opinion.

“The players might have been saying, 'We only lost 2-1'. I would have said, 'Yes, but they created ten chances'. If they had missed their chances, the performance would still have stayed exactly the same. On Tuesday, I was happy because the players' opinion was very sad and angry inside.”

With Stephane Sessegnon suspended for the remainder of the season, Di Canio will have to reorganise his attack on Monday night. However, he will not be able to call on the services of Connor Wickham as the striker continues to struggle with a calf problem.