Jesse Lingard continued his red-hot form with two goals for West Ham in their 3-2 win over Leicester City.
The England midfielder took his goal tally to eight in nine appearances since joining on loan from Manchester United in January to help lift the Hammers back into the top four.
David Moyes' side held off a late Leicester fightback and are now just a point behind the third-placed Foxes, and still on course to gatecrash the Champions League next season.
Three Leicester players – James Maddison, Hamza Choudhury and Ayoze Perez – were dropped from their squad for breaching Covid-19 protocols.
The first half an hour at the London Stadium would not exactly have had the European giants quaking in their boots, though.
But a moment of quality from the in-form Lingard, in front of England manager Gareth Southgate, put West Ham ahead.
Right-back Vladimir Coufal cut the ball back to the Lingard, who sent a precise volley past Kasper Schmeichel from the edge of the area.
Lingard struck again before half-time when the Leicester defence was caught out by a long ball from Issa Diop.
Jarrod Bowen stayed just onside as he raced towards goal, and as Schmeichel came out the winger squared for Lingard to tap into an empty net.
The Hammers were 3-0 up just three minutes into the second half after Arthur Masuaku robbed Kelechi Iheanacho and fed Lingard down the left.
Lingard cut the ball back to Tomas Soucek, who played it on to Bowen for a simple finish from eight yards.
But West Ham have found 3-0 leads hard to hold on to in recent matches, having been pegged back to 3-3 by Arsenal and clung on for a 3-2 win at Wolves on Monday.
The jitters threatened to set in again when Masuaku lost possession and Iheanacho lashed home with 20 minutes remaining. And Iheanacho grabbed his 11th goal in 11 games when he prodded in Marc Albrighton's cross at the start of six minutes of stoppage time.
Wesley Fofana then headed a last-gasp chance wide as West Ham held on to inflict only a second away defeat of the season on the Foxes, and strengthen their unlikely bid for a place at Europe's top table.
"We almost made a mess of it at the end," said Lingard after the match. "It has been like that for three games. We are still learning.
"I am picking up good positions, where the ball is falling. It's confidence, instinct, knowing players and where the right and left back and going to put it.
"Games are like cup finals. We grind out the wins and take the points home."
As for Leicester, the defeat capped a tough few days that saw midfielders Maddison and Choudhury, plus striker Perez, punished by the club.
"We have a set of values for the team, for this club and we have to adhere to that," manager Brendan Rodgers told Sky Sports.
"It was a decision I made, an internal situation last weekend. It is not the standard we expect. They are all good guys, good lads, but we have a standard on and off the pitch.
"The boys will rejoin the group after this game. It's internal, it's something we have dealt with. The boys, it's disappointing behaviour, it's a mistake. It's not what we are about."
