Tottenham's 100 per cent home record was left in tatters as Middlesbrough humiliated them with a football masterclass at White Hart Lane.
The visitors were in irresistible form as they tore Spurs apart for the entire 90 minutes and could have gone back to the North East with more than just three goals to their name.
Massimo Maccarone opened the scoring in the first half as Boro piled on the pressure and the destruction was completed after the break with further strikes from Geremi and Joseph-Desire Job.
Boro had Spurs reeling right from the start as they forced a succession of corners, but a wild header from Gareth Southgate was the closest they came to making their dominance pay off.
However the visitors kept coming at Spurs and only the brilliance of Kasey Keller prevented Boro taking the lead in the 20th minute when Job forced him to push the ball around the post with a stinging low drive from 20 yards.
Keller had no chance 12 minutes later when Jonathan Greening got the better of Simon Davies down the left and although Maccarone made a mess of his initial header the ball fell kindly to the Italian who prodded it home from point-blank range.
Spurs registered their first shot on target in the 38th minute when Robbie Keane put Mathew Etheringtom through, but Mark Schwarzer had no problem dealing with his weak shot.
Almost immediately Spurs had Keller to thank for not falling further behind when Ben Thatcher was caught in possession by Geremi, but Maccarone's shot was blocked by the Tottenham keeper's legs.
Glenn Hoddle must have been relieved to hear the half-time whistle and brought on Teddy Sheringham for the ineffective Les Ferdinand at the interval in a bid to get back into the game.
However within 15 minutes the match was all but over as a now rampant Boro scored twice more.
First Maccarone picked out Geremi at the far post and the midfielder had all the time in the world to blast his shot past Keller.
Tottenham nearly grabbed a lifeline three minutes later when Gary Doherty's header rebounded off the post and away to safety but almost immediately they were further behind as Alen Boksic's pass cut the Tottenham defence wide open and Job ran through to slot the ball past Keller.
The only crumb of comfort for Tottenham was that it could of being worse but for the woodwork.
In the closing stages Boksic hit the outside of the post from a narrow angle while Keller was still on the floor and then Geremi's 20-yard free-kick crashed against the upright, before Job somehow put the rebound wide when faced with an open goal