Villa, beaten only once in six games, demonstrated their class with Young scoring direct from a free-kick and John Carew notching a cheeky winner.
Sunderland boss Roy Keane, who was far from happy in midweek following the display against Northampton, was even more distressed by his side's defensive performance against Villa when they weakly surrendered an early advantage.
The fact that Sunderland were unable to cash in only highlighted the problems for Keane's team.
But it is little wonder that the Irishman is prepared to break the bank to acquire Dijbril Cisse on a permanent basis after the on-loan striker from Marseille scored a fine opening goal.
Under pressure Sunderland survived several Villa attacks and the perfect antidote was provided by Cisse when the striker rocked the Midland club with the opening goal after ten minutes.
The goal was created by Steed Malbranque showing vision in pushing the ball into an open space to enable Cisse to run across and shoot first time low past Brad Friedel.
Villa's response was to pressurise Sunderland and it resulted in a spectacular equaliser from Young in the 18th minute.
The young Villa winger was knocked off the ball by Liam Miller, but the former Watford player picked himself up and promptly swirled in a low free-kick to the right of Craig Gordon's groping hands.
Sunderland's defence was hardly secure from Young's free-kicks as Villa took a 33rd minute lead when the youngster's shot was blocked out to the right.
Stiliyan Petrov gained possession and his low cross was flicked into the net by Carew with his back to the Sunderland goal.
Only a brave save by Gordon prevented Gareth Barry scoring just before half-time following a low, left-wing cross from Carew.
The skill of Young was again a delight to watch and why he is not in the England team is a mystery to manager Martin O'Neill.
Sunderland's introduction of Andy Reid appeared to give them a better balance, but the equaliser eluded them despite producing more attacking moves than in the first half.