Wolfsburg moved to the top of the Bundesliga, at least for a night, with a commanding 3-0 win over Schalke without two key players who appear to have made their last appearances for the club.
Goals from Bas Dost, Ricardo Rodriguez and Timm Klose helped the Wolves get over the impending departures of Kevin De Bruyne and Ivan Perisic, with Schalke powerless to prevent their first defeat of the season.
The win took Dieter Hecking's men a point clear of Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen, who are in action on Saturday.
Wolfsburg lined up without De Bruyne and Perisic, both of whom are expected to leave the club this weekend and link up with Manchester City and Inter Milan respectively.
Their places were taken by Max Kruse and Daniel Caligiuri, who showed with their movement that there could still be life after the Belgian and the Croatian.
Dost put the Wolves in front after 17 minutes when he lost his marker to turn in Christian Trasch's cross. It had been in the air with Schalke all at sea in their own half in the opening 15 minutes.
The goal woke the visitors up with Leroy Sane starting to look a little more active, but they could not get back on terms before the interval.
The break came at a good time for Wolfsburg, who regrouped and came out like they had started the first half, earning a penalty when Luiz Gustavo was fouled by Sead Kolasinac.
Rodriguez tucked away the spot-kick, sending Ralf Fahrmann the wrong way to give his side a firm grip on all three points.
Just two minutes later, victory was wrapped up when Rodriguez's corner was met by Klose at the near post, and he flicked the ball past Fahrmann, unmarked as the Schalke defence again looked susceptible.