Steve McClaren’s FC Twente are now nine points behind leaders AZ Alkmaar after a late 2-1 win at Sparta Rotterdam.
Twente were ahead after only four minutes when Sander van Gessel turned a cross into his own net.
Sparta hit back after half an hour when Ruud Knol converted a penalty following a Slobodan Rajkovic handball.
But Twente dominated the second half and Theo Janssen produced a spectacular long-range effort in injury time to give his side all three points.
McClaren said he would have been happy with a point, “but then Theo Janssen wins the game for us with a good shot.
“It was a difficult afternoon. Sparta are always good when they are playing at home.”
Ajax remain only three points behind Twente after their 2-1 win at home to rock-bottom FC Volendam gave them their second successive win in the league.
Marco van Basten’s side fell a goal behind after 15 minutes as Gerson Sheotahul scored on the counter-attack to give the visitors a shock lead.
But Luis Suarez, who had passed up several earlier chances, levelled with a header on 29 minutes before Thomas Vermaelen made it 2-1 with 15 minutes to play.
It appeared Volendam might have piled further pressure on Van Basten when Dominique van Dijk had the ball in the back of the net as the game drew to a close, but it was ruled out for offside.
In Sunday’s other games, Feyenoord moved up to 11th after an important 2-0 win at De Graafschap thanks to second-half goals from Karim El Ahmadi and Jon Dahl Tomasson, while NEC Nijmegen won 2-0 at FC Utrecht after late goals from Youssef El Akchaoui and Joel Tshibamba.