Wolverhampton Wanderers moved closer to Premier League safety and heaped more misery on Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou with victory at Molineux.
Postecoglou made six changes to the Spurs side that drew 1-1 with Eintracht Frankfurt in their Europa League quarter-final first-leg tie, before a second meeting on Thursday that could shape his future.
And Wolves cashed in with a crucial win that moved them up to 16th place and 14 points clear of the bottom three with six games left.
Vitor Pereira’s side were on the way to a fourth straight top-flight victory for the first time since January 1972 inside two minutes when Rayan Ait-Nouri scored after latching on to Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario’s punched clearance on the edge of the area.
Wolves doubled their advantage seven minutes before half-time in a moment of high farce, with keeper Vicario pushing Marshall Munetsi’s header on to backtracking defender Djed Spence and into his own net.
Spurs pulled one back just before the hour mark when Mathys Tel bundled home at the far post after Wolves defender Nelson Semedo made a mess of clearing Brennan Johnson’s cross.
But Wolves restored their two-goal lead five minutes later when the excellent Ait-Nouri beat Cristian Romero far too easily before crossing for Jorgen Strand Larsen to complete the formalities with a simple finish and scoring for a fourth successive game.
Substitute Richarlison gave Spurs brief hope four minutes from time when he bundled home after Wolves keeper Jose Sa touched Romero’s header on to the bar.
But there was more drama as substitute Matheus Cunha, on for Ait-Nouri after serving a four-match suspension, confirmed 15th-placed Tottenham’s 17th league loss this season when Lucas Bergvall lost possession and the Brazilian raced clear and finished calmly.
