Newcastle United have taken control of the top-four race courtesy of a 6-1 humiliation of fellow Champions League hopefuls Tottenham Hotspur at St James' Park this afternoon.
In a remarkable Premier League encounter, Eddie Howe's hosts found themselves 5-0 ahead inside an incredible opening 21 minutes as they blew a shambolic Spurs side away with less than a quarter of the game gone.
Three of those goals came inside the first 10 minutes, with Jacob Murphy helping himself to a brace either side of Joelinton's strike.
Alexander Isak then scored twice in as many minutes - the first after a sumptuous assist from Joe Willock - to leave the home fans pinching themselves and Tottenham staring down the barrel of one of their worst-ever Premier League days.
A tactical and personnel switch from interim boss Cristian Stellini stemmed the tide until the end of the first half, and Tottenham pulled one back four minutes into the second half through Harry Kane's 207th Premier League goal.
There was never any suggestion that the visitors would produce the greatest ever Premier League comeback, though, and Callum Wilson added Newcastle's sixth midway through the second half to pile further misery on a Tottenham side seemingly in turmoil both on and off the pitch.
The result lifts Newcastle up to third place in the table - now above Manchester United on goal difference - while Spurs remain fifth and are now six points adrift of the Champions League places having played one game more than Newcastle and two more than Man United.
The Magpies went into the match off the back of their heaviest defeat of the season - a 3-0 loss to Aston Villa last weekend - but they responded in more emphatic fashion than Howe could have ever dreamt of.
The match was just 61 seconds old when both Newcastle and Tottenham offered a glimpse of what was to come as Joelinton went dancing through a statuesque defence inside the box before getting a shot away which Hugo Lloris could only parry to Murphy, who converted having anticipated a rebound far more effectively than any of the defenders.
Tottenham's defence was once again AWOL four minutes later when Fabian Schar's pass over the top released Joelinton, who skipped around Lloris before putting the ball into the empty net.
Newcastle were already in dreamland when Murphy added a third inside the opening nine minutes, firing into the bottom corner from range after Schar had won the ball inside the Tottenham half.
That goal saw the Magpies become only the sixth team in Premier League history to score three goals within the opening nine minutes of a match, and the first for 13 years.
Matters only got worse for Tottenham though, and arguably the moment of the match arrived in the 19th minute when Willock produced a contender for assist of the season to play in Isak, who kept his composure to slide his finish past Lloris.
Moments later, Isak picked out the same bottom corner after a clever backheel from Sean Longstaff for his second of the game and Newcastle's fifth after 21 minutes - the second-fastest 5-0 lead in Premier League history.
At that point, Stellini abandoned his disastrous four-at-the-back experiment, hauling off Pape Sarr midway through the first half and turning to Davinson Sanchez, who himself had been booed off by his own supporters following a calamitous display against Bournemouth last weekend.
The switch did stem the tide of goals, but Stellini then hooked captain and goalkeeper Lloris at half time before Kane provided a rare highlight for the visitors with a fine solo effort to get one back and move to within one of Wayne Rooney in the list of all-time Premier League top scorers.
The goal was scant consolation, though, and Newcastle restored their five-goal advantage when Wilson turned home seconds after coming on as a sub, capping off a memorable afternoon for the hosts and a miserable one for Spurs.
The result was Newcastle's biggest Premier League win since January 2011 and Tottenham's biggest defeat since December 2013, and it leaves Howe's side as the frontrunners to claim a Champions League place with just seven games of their season remaining. body check tags ::
