Adelaide United have continued Sydney FC’s A-League woes with a comprehensive 3-0 victory in their pivotal Boxing Day clash at Allianz Stadium.

Second-half goals from Bruce Djite, Pablo Sanchez and substitute Awer Mabil were enough to snap Adelaide’s two-game losing run and extend Sydney FC’s winless streak to four matches.

While Adelaide’s win lifted the FFA Cup champions above Melbourne Victory into second place on the ladder, injury-hit Sydney face the prospect of tumbling out of the top six by the end of the busy festive season fixture list.

Down on troops and desperately missing the towering presence of veteran defender Sasa Ognenovski on Friday night, coach Graham Arnold must somehow lift Sydney FC’s spirits for a trip on Tuesday to Brisbane to tackle the defending champion Roar.

After going unbeaten for the opening eight rounds, the Sky Blues have now suffered three successive home defeats and the way they capitulated against Adelaide was an all too familiar sight for Arnold.

Sydney FC dominated the first half, but were unable to capitalise as right back Rhyan Grant and striker Bernie Ibini caused Adelaide all sorts of problems.

Striker Marc Franco was furious at being denied a penalty in the 32nd minute, but referee Jarred Gillett was spot on in only issuing Adelaide defender Tarek Elrich with a yellow card for bringing the big Austrian down outside the box.

The resulting free kick from Nikola Petkovic was a fizzer.

Giving possession away far too easily, Adelaide were under the pump again soon after, with only a desperate intervention from defender Nigel Boogard saving the visitors on the stroke of halftime.

After missing the target with his side’s two best chances of the first half, Djite forced a fine save from Sydney FC keeper Vedran Janjetovic two minutes into the second half as Adelaide upped the ante.

The dynamic striker finally found the back of the net in the 67th minute following a lob into the box from Marcelo Carrusca before Sanchez brilliantly headed home Jimmy Jeggo’s beautiful cross nine minutes from fulltime to clinch the three points.

An injury-time tap in from Mabil completed the rout. - AAP