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Kevin De Bruyne’s four-goal haul kept Manchester City on course for the Premier League title as the defending champions thrashed Wolves 5-1 at Molineux on Wednesday.
Pep Guardiola’s Man City side move three points clear of Liverpool with two games to play and boosted their goal difference to seven superior to the Reds.
Man City need just four points from Sunday’s trip to West Ham and the visit of Aston Villa on the final day of the season to be crowned champions for the fourth time in five years.
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And with De Bruyne on this form, they will take some stopping as the Belgian produced his brilliant best to blow away the hosts with a hat-trick inside 24 minutes.
Man City broke the news on Tuesday that they have beaten Europe’s top clubs to the signature of Erling Haaland.
However, even the Norwegian goalscoring phenomenon would struggle to match the range of finishes off both feet dispatched by De Bruyne.
In keeping with their form in recent weeks, City looked to have dispelled any early nerves by scoring first as Bernardo Silva teed up De Bruyne to fire first time across Jose Sa.
The visitors, though, were without three key defenders in Kyle Walker, John Stones and Ruben Dias through injury and it showed.
Aymeric Laporte had to make a desperate last-ditch challenge to deny Chiquinho before Wolves levelled on 11 minutes.
Pedro Neto was allowed to gallop clear into the City box and picked out Leander Dendoncker to slot past Ederson.
Parity only lasted another five minutes as De Bruyne was both creator and executioner of City’s second.
Raheem Sterling failed to connect with his pass through the heart of the Wolves’ defence, but Sa could only turn the ball back into De Bruyne’s path and he made no mistake.
The best was yet to come from the 30-year-old as he took aim from outside the box and arrowed a shot into the bottom corner to complete a hat-trick, with all three goals scored by his supposedly weaker left foot.
De Bruyne’s was the third quickest hat-trick in Premier League history and his first since he played for Genk 11 years ago.