Nottingham Forest took a huge step toward ensuring their Premier League survival in a stunning 5-0 win at Sunderland on Friday.
Less than a week after beating Burnley 4-1, Forest rose eight points clear of the relegation zone and sent shivers down the spine of Tottenham Hotspur fans. Spurs occupy the third relegation spot, two points behind West Ham.
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With Burnley and Wolves already relegated, Spurs or West Ham are now the most likely candidates to join them.
"It gives us some breathing room and puts pressure on the two chasing behind," Forest's New Zealand striker Chris Wood said. "Back-to-back wins do that for you.
"We built on the second half from last week, that is what we wanted to do. We want to build and get better and show what we are capable of. We started fast and what we did today was fantastic."
Forest head coach Vitor Pereira insisted his team could not relax and still needed more points to be sure of Premier League surival, but couldn't hide his joy at Friday's performance.
"It's fantastic, fantastic," he said. "I asked my team to play at the level of Champions League because the Premier League is our Champions League.
Igor Jesus celebrates scoring Nottingham Forest's fourth goal against Sunderland. Stu Forster/Getty Images "I said to them, to win at this stadium against Sunderland -- they are 10 points above us -- it means that we had to play at our best level, and in my opinion, the first half was full, tactically, mentally, pressing, creating a lot of problems from set-plays, scoring goals, conceding nothing.
"In the end, it was about being compact, defending and finishing the game with one more goal. We scored, we didn't concede, a clean sheet, [and that's] very important at this moment for us."
Sunderland had the best defensive record in the league at home after Manchester City and Arsenal, but that defensive solidity disappeared during a woeful first half.
Forest looked quicker and hungrier from the off and took the lead after 16 minutes when Igor Jesus' header went in off Trai Hume following a neatly worked short corner.
Disaster then struck for Sunderland as goalkeeper Robin Roefs gifted Forest a second. His sloppy pass went straight to Morgan Gibbs-White, who fed Chris Wood to give the big New Zealander, recently back from a long injury layoff, his first league goal since the opening day of the season.