Teemu Pukki scored a brace to take his Championship goal tally to 20 for the season as Norwich City returned to the top of the table following a heated 3-0 win over local rivals Ipswich Town at Carrow Road on Sunday.
The Finnish forward furthered his reputation as one of English football's signings of 2018-19 with a display of clinical finishing in the second half of a game in which Onel Hernandez gave Norwich an early lead.
Tempers flared throughout a fractious derby that saw Ipswich boss and former Canaries manager Paul Lambert sent to the stands, but the gulf in quality between the two sides was always evident.
While Ipswich remain rooted to the foot of the table, Norwich capitalised on draws for Leeds United and Sheffield United earlier in the weekend and moved two points clear at the summit and five ahead of the Blades in third.
"Oh no, how awful. When are Ipswich Town ever going to beat them?" #ncfcpic.twitter.com/1ruqgmAFGP— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) February 10, 2019
Hernandez opened the scoring inside two minutes, connecting with Mario Vrancic's header across the face of goal and slotting the ball home while Ipswich's defenders floundered.
Lambert had to be restrained by a police officer when he was sent off along with Norwich head of performance Chris Domogalla after a tackle by Jon Nolan on Maximillian Aarons led to an altercation on the touchline moments before the interval.
The second half was 20 minutes old when a defensive error by Matthew Pennington allowed Emiliano Buendia to break through the middle and feed Pukki, who sent a low shot into the far corner of the net.
Pukki thought he had made it three when he headed home from Marco Stiepermann's flick at a corner, only to see the effort ruled out for offside.
But the third goal arrived when Buendia once again carved Ipswich open and played Pukki into the box, where he slid the ball under the body of Town goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski.
