Everton 4 – 0 Leicester
Abdoulaye Doucouré scored the fastest goal in Everton history as the Toffees put four past Leicester City and racked up their third successive win under David Moyes’s stewardship in fine style.
Doucouré raced onto Jordan Pickford’s ball forward and fired home with just 10 seconds gone and that set the home side on their way to an impressive victory that goes a long way towards banishing fears of relegation.
The manager was forced to make changes to the side that started at Brighton due to injuries to two more first-choice players but drew excellent performances from the two replacements in what was a great display all round.
Beto came in to lead the line in place of Dominic Calvert-Lewin while James Garner made his first appearance following a long lay-off with a back problem and the Blues got off to a scintillating start.
After Doucouré had banged in the fourth-quickest goal since the inception of the Premier League, Beto doubled the lead in the sixth minute as James Tarkowski released him down the channel and he surged into the box before burying his shot past the goalkeeper.
Jake O’Brien had the ball in net following a corner but was rightly flagged offside while Doucouré should have extended Everton’s lead to three when Vitalii Mykolenko picked him out with a low cross from the left. However, he side-footed over from close range but Beto made no mistake when his second clear chance arrived in first-half stoppage time.
Latching onto James Garner’s perfectly-weighted pass, he rolled the ball past Mads Hermansen to put the Blues into a commanding lead at the interval.
The second half was, predictably, less intense from the home side’s perspective given the big lead they had established but Jesper Lindstrøm had a gilt-edged chance to open his account before Iliman Ndiaye rounded off the rout in the 90th minute.
Hassling Jannik Vestergaard and Caleb Okoli, the Senegalese pounced on a ricochet and was left with just the keeper to beat which he did with aplomb.
The result lifts Everton above Tottenham in the table for the time being but also put 10 points between them and the relegation zone.