Juan Pablo Angel took his goal tally for the season to 20 with a double as Aston Villa stepped up their bid to qualify for Europe next season by hammering local rivals Wolves at Molineux.
Villa were out of sight before half-time when they raced into a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from Thomas Hitzlsperger, Olof Mellberg and leading scorer Angel.
Angel grabbed his second, and Villa's fourth, after 59 minutes as Wolves crashed to only their second home defeat in their last 11 league games.
Relegation-threatened Wolves were caught cold with three goals coming inside the first 25 minutes as Villa completed a double over Dave Jones' side.
To cap a dismal first-half display by Wolves, their Romanian international striker Vio Ganea saw his weak penalty kick easily saved by goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen in stoppage time.
A win would have lifted Wolves out of the bottom three and given their survival hopes a major boost.
But they never got into gear in what was the first league meeting between the two sides at Molineux for 21 years.
Villa, who recorded their first win in three games to revive their hopes of reaching Europe, gave a clear sign of their intent when they forced three corners in the opening four minutes.
Their pressure eventually told after seven minutes when a neat pass from Lee Hendrie released Hitzlsperger whose shot took a slight deflection off Wolves' central defender Paul Butler before flying into the far corner of the net.
Villa doubled their advantage 11 minutes later when Hitzlsperger whipped in a corner.
Paul Jones tried to punch the cross clear but he missed the ball and Mellberg stooped to head home his first goal of the season.
Wolves had their fate sealed in the 24th minute when a mix-up between Jones and left-back Lee Naylor allowed Angel to nip in and stab the ball into an empty net.
Wolves had come back from 3-0 down to beat Leicester City at Molineux in October but their hopes of another unlikely comeback were effectively extinguished when Ganea missed from the spot.
He won the penalty when he was fouled by Mellberg. But his weak spot-kick was comfortably turned away by Sorensen.
Angel added to their woes 14 minutes after the re-start when he collected a long pass from Nolberto Solano and outpaced Jody Craddock before beating Jones with a low angled drive.