Vitor Pereira insists he is not in charge of Wolves and managing in the Premier League to be satisfied with survival.

Wolves climbed a place to 16th, their highest position of the season, with Sunday’s 4-2 victory over Tottenham at Molineux to all-but extinguish any fading fears of the drop.

Spurs are now just one place and two points better off than Pereira’s troops with Manchester United a further position and one more point better prior to Wolves’ trip to Old Trafford on Easter Sunday.

“Look – if I start to speak about being safe then I am not being ambitious,” Pereira said when asked if he felt Wolves were safe with Ipswich, Leicester and already-relegated Southampton marooned in the bottom three.

“I don’t want to show my ambition (as that). I did not come to England, to the Premier League, to work just to avoid relegation. I am not this kind of coach.

“We go there (to Manchester United), with our qualities trying to compete for the three points.”

Wolves run of four victories against Southampton, West Ham, Ipswich and Spurs to follow a draw against Everton has been an impressive tonic to the disappointing FA Cup exit at Bournemouth at the start of last month.

It is a best top-flight run of victories in 53 years for the Old Gold.

Boss Pereira had to contend with slight fitness issues for midfielder Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, who created the opening goal, and defender Matt Doherty during the comfortable Spurs win.

Bellegarde was replaced by Pablo Sarabia and Doherty did not re-emerge from the interval with Santi Bueno on in his place. Pereira said the issues were only minor and was instead keen to heap praise on defender Emmanuel Agbadou, who fought through illness to impress.

“They were nothing special,” Pereira said of the knocks. “Bellegarde had a contusion in the calf, if we kept playing with him it was a risk.

“Doherty, was the same, in the last game and not this one. He felt something on the hamstring that he is dealing with, it is an old injury but nothing special.

“The player I need to thank a lot for playing is Agba, because Agba was sick yesterday and maybe not in condition to play. He has a problem in the finger with a lot of pain. He was coughing. But in the period he came back to help the team and I thank him.”

Deputy goalkeeper Sam Johnstone missed out through injury and the head coach said of his call to omit Goncalo Guedes: “I need to see competition in my players, in the best level that they can.”

Rayan | ‘It’s very good for the mentality of our players’

Rayan Ait-Nouri hopes Wolves can continue producing the quality they need to maintain their winning run after securing four in succession for the first time in Premier League history.

The Algerian proved to be a handful for Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon at Molineux as he scored Wolves’ opener inside 90 second with a clever volley from the edge of the penalty area – Wolves’ fastest ever Premier League goal – before he set up Jorgen Strand Larsen for the Old Gold’s third of the afternoon.

And after helping to secure a 4-2 win over Spurs, which lifted Wolves up to 16^th in the Premier League standings, Ait-Nouri wants his teammates to keep pushing in the remaining fixtures.

On beating Tottenham at Molineux

“We are very happy, we take three points here at home, in front of our supporters and our fans and it’s very good for the mentality of our players, but we deserved that.

“I hope we’ll be continuing like this.”

On his goal and assist

“I saw the ball come and I shoot. We work a little but in the training on this situation, and I’m very happy that I scored. But we won and that was the most important thing.

“I’m happy. I tried to do my best for the team. Today I scored and I made one assist, but the most important thing is the team. I will try to do my best until the end and hopefully we can continue like this.”

On Cunha’s goal scoring return

“Matheus has come back and we know the qualities that he has. He’s a great player and today he was on the pitch and he scored. So I’m very happy.

“I’m happy for him and hopefully in the next game he will score again.”