Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink scored a stunning 12-minute hat-trick to spare the blushes of beleaguered coach Claudio Ranieri as Chelsea overcame Wolves 5-2 in a see-saw match at Stamford Bridge.
Coming off the bench on 60 minutes and Chelsea 2-1 down, the Dutchman pulled his side out of the fire with three beautifully executed goals which destroyed the heart of hard-running Wolves, as relegation now stares them full in the face.
All the day's speculation about Ranieri's future drove Chelsea supporters to shout their support for the Italian. Cries of: "There's only one Ranieri," and "We don't want Eriksson," reverberated around Stamford Bridge within seconds of the start.
Chelsea opened the scoring with their first real attack in the fourth minute.
Midfielder Frank Lampard fed the ball to Joe Cole whose sliderule ball found Mario Melchiot, The Dutchman out-muscled Lee Naylor on the edge of the Wolves penalty area before arrowing a low, right-footer right through the legs of goalkeeper Paul Jones to give the Londoners the lead.
Wolves were pegged back in their own half as Chelsea were relentless in attack.
On 19 minutes an excellent five-man move saw Lampard chip the ball to Hernan Crespo, wide in the Wolves penalty area. The Argentinian's righ-foot volley flew only just wide.
But Wolves equalised in bizarre fashion.
On 23 minutes England centre half John Terry sloppily handed the ball to Henri Camara just outside the Chelsea area.
The Senegalese striker ran into the box and slotted home a low, right-footer that was deflected into the net off goalkeeper Marco Ambrosio's trailing left leg.
Seconds later, the relegated-haunted visitors had a golden opportunity to take the lead but Mark Kennedy sidefooted his left-footed drive wide of the net.
On 28 minutes Chelsea had the chance to take the lead when Eidur Gudjohnsen beat the offside trap via a Lampard long ball but Paul Jones was equal to the task, stopping the Icelandic striker's right-foot effort with his feet.
Wolves stormed back on to the attack and Alex Rae's 20-yard blaster sailed over the Chelsea crossbar.
For the start of the second half, "Tinkerman" Ranieri once again lived up to his nickname, replacing Gudjohnsen for Damien Duff with Cole partnering Crespo up front.
And within minutes of Duff's arrival he set up Crespo with a marvellous left-wing cross on 51 minutes only for the striker to head aimlessly over the bar.
Duff helped to give Chelsea added impetus and on 52 minutes his 40-yard run set up a quick counter-attack that resulted in a corner, which Chelsea failed to capitalise on.
Another counter-attack on 55 minutes saw Cole produce an inch-perfect throughball to Crespo. The striker slotted the ball across the byline but it was cleared.
But seconds later Wolves took the lead. A corner from Mark Kennedy was headed into the net by Jody Craddock as Ambrosio failed to get anywhere near it.
This forced Ranieri's hand and on 60 minutes he brought on Hasselbaink for the out of sorts Geremi.
Ambrosio made up for his earlier error by producing a wonderful dive to stop Paul Ince's 20-yard piledriver In the 64th minute a sweeping counter-attack by Chelsea ended with Hasselbaink, on the edge of the penalty area, setting up Cole, but the England midfielder blasted his shot high and wide.
Five minutes later Claude Makelele won the ball in his own area and fed the ball to Lampard who in turn gave it to Duff.
Duff returned the ball to Lampard on the edge of the area and the midfielder, playing his 100th successive game for Chelsea, unleashed an unstoppable right-foot drive that sailed past the despairing dive of the hapless Jones.
In the 78th minute up popped Hasselbaink to score his 100th Premiership goal with an unstoppable right-foot shot from just outside the area which flew past Jones ' outstretched right hand.
The keeper, in truth had no chance to stop the Dutchman's rasper.
Ranieri replaced Cole with Scott Parker in the 80th minute with the intention of sewing the game up. But no one told Hasselbaink.
The Dutchman almost produced an audacious goal direct from a corner on 84 minutes.
Wolves boss David Jones' last throw of the dice was to bring on Carl Cort for Kenny Miller and Colin Cameron for Alex Rae on 85 minutes.
But with three minutes left Hasselbaink sealed the game for Chelsea Latching on to a Parker throughball, Hasselbaink ran into the penalty area and sent a left-footed piledriver nestling in the back of Wolves' net.
Deep into injury time, and perhaps offside, Hasselbaink scored his third to complete a 12-minute hat-trick.
Picking up a throughball from Lampard, Hasselbaink took one touch before powering a right-footer past Jones again and into the back of the net.
Wolves manager Dave Jones was livid at his players condemning them for "switching off." He said: "I blame the players for that result.
"For 70 minutes we were in charge and then we go all gung-ho looking for a third goal.
"It would have come had they all done their jobs properly.
"We had a game plan and it worked. It looked like a rout, but in truth I was disappointed not to come away with all three points.
"Chelsea made six changes and those players were not playing well.
"I think we need five wins to stay up now, but I'm not looking at anyone else to do us a favour." Man of the match: Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink - Once again proved that in terms of pure goalscoring ability, he his head and shoulders above all the current Chelsea strikers.