David Zurutuza scored twice in the opening three minutes as Real Sociedad thumped Sporting Gijon 5-1 to pile the pressure on Manuel Preciado.
Zurutuza took advantage of great assists by Antoine Griezmann and Carlos Vela to get the home side off to a flying start, but Miguel De Las Cuevas brought Sporting back into the game with a neat finish just after half-time.
Oscar Trejo then hit the bar for the visitors before Sociedad secured all three points as Gorka Elustondo was left unmarked to guide home Vela's corner.
Mikel Aranburu tapped home the fourth before Griezmann got the goal his performance deserved with a calm finish in the final minute of stoppage time.
Preciado had insisted after Sporting's 3-0 defeat to Villarreal on Monday that his side were still more than good enough to stay up, but they appeared to lack their manager's confidence as Sociedad strolled into an immediate two-goal lead.
Firstly, Griezmann's cross from the left was met perfectly at the back post by Zurutuza, before Vela's defence splitting pass allowed the midfielder to lift the ball over Juan Pablo.
Zurutuza's amazing start to the afternoon ended there though as he had to replaced by Markel Bergara in only the seventh minute after receiving a nasty-looking head injury, and after a desperate start Sporting began to make an impression on the game.
Nacho Cases saw his long-range effort fly just wide on 20 minutes, but the visitors did halve the deficit just two minutes after half-time as De Las Cuevas neatly slotted home Trejo's cross.
Sporting were now in the ascendancy and were very unlucky not to be level when Trejo raced onto Mate Bilic's knock-down but his effort was deflected onto the bar by Claudio Bravo.
Having escaped that scare, though, the hosts were gifted their third goal with 15 minutes to go as Elustondo was left all alone inside the six-yard box to sidefoot Vela's low corner past Pablo.
And Sociedad's day was complete when they again scored two goals in three minutes in stoppage time.
Aranburu was on hand to knock in the rebound after Pablo had parried Diego Ifran's free-kick, before Griezmann showed great composure to round the goalkeeper and roll in the fifth with the last kick of the game.
