Espanyol inflicted a sixth straight La Liga defeat on Eibar this evening to leave their opponents deep in relegation trouble.
Sergio Garcia and Christian Stuani goals in either half condemned Eibar to a 2-0 loss and they will fall into the bottom three if Deportivo La Coruna win over the weekend.
Eibar had all of the early pressure as Saul Berjon tested Francisco Casilla with a long-range shot and Javi Lara struck wide from distance.
However, they were behind on 29 minutes following a goalmouth scramble from which Espanyol found the net at the third attempt.
Xabi Irureta dived low to his left to keep out Stuani's header and Abraham Gonzalez's follow-up effort glanced off the crossbar to Garcia, who defied the angle against him to curl the ball into the roof of the net.
Lara nearly replied for Eibar in the early stages of the second half with a free kick which went narrowly over the crossbar, before Stuani gave Espanyol a cushion by smartly controlling a bouncing ball in the box and poking into the far corner.
The hosts thought that they had grabbed a late foothold in the match when Federico Piovaccari beat Casilla on 78 minutes, but he did not beat the offside trap and his disallowed goal deflated Eibar before the finish.
Espanyol climb to seventh in the table, but are five points behind Villarreal in the final Europa League qualifying spot.
Joe Fish
