Roma gave their fading hopes of Champions League football next season a significant shot in the arm with a mauling of fellow hopefuls Napoli.
Roma began the day in eighth place, five points adrift of fourth place and three points behind fifth-placed Napoli, but soon set about changing that as Philippe Mexes opened the scoring in the 18th minute.
Juan doubled the lead just after the half-hour mark and Mirko Vucinic then made it three five minutes after half-time.
However, it might have been very different had Marcelo Zalayeta's sixth-minute effort for Napoli counted.
The striker brought down Manuele Blasi's cross before firing beyond the reach of goalkeeper Alexander Doni, but the assistant referee signaled that he had used his arm to bring the ball down.
The assistant was involved again six minutes later as he brought a promising Napoli attack to an end when he ruled Ezequiel Lavezzi offside.
Roma had been kept quiet in the opening stages but they led after 18 minutes when David Pizarro's free-kick from the left-hand side found Mexes unmarked in front of goal and the French defender headed home easily.
Napoli went close to an equalizer in the 28th minute when Lavezzi latched on to a free-kick to fire in a strong right-footed shot, but Doni reacted well to punch the ball out for a corner.
Moments later, Roma doubled their lead when Daniele Mannini gave away a cheap corner and the visitors capitalised with Juan out-jumping the defense to head beyond Matteo Gianello.
Napoli had every right to feel aggrieved by a scoreline which did not reflect how well they had played, but if they had plans to set things straight in the second half things got off to the worst possible start as they fell further behind only five minutes after the restart.
Fabio Santacroce surrendered possession to Alberto Aquilani who fired in a quick cross to Vucinic on the left, and he unleashed a shot past Gianello and inside the near post.
At the other end, Zalayeta went for the spectacular in a bid to get back into the game but his bicycle kick was punched away by Doni.
With 63 minutes gone, Roma might have had a fourth goal but Rodrigo Taddei's shot from the left-hand side of the area was deflected onto the post by the diving Gianello.
Roma had another great chance for a fourth two minutes from time when Julio Baptista picked up the ball just inside the area, but the Brazilian fired wide.
The win moves Roma up to sixth place, level now on points with Napoli who stay fifth.
