Abdoulaye Doucouré’s lightning-fast strike sets Everton up for Leicester rout

David Moyes did not play down the importance of Leicester’s final league visit to Goodison Park. “Crucial,” he called a contest that could not only nudge Everton towards Premier League safety but enable the club to start planning for a better future. A team reborn under his leadership delivered.

An opening blitz that included the fastest goal ever scored at the historic old stadium destroyed Ruud van Nistelrooy’s abject visitors and secured a third successive league win for Everton under their new manager. Sean Dyche managed three wins in five months and 19 games in the Premier League this season. Everton have now scored six goals from open play since the Scot returned, one fewer than the team had managed all season under Dyche.

Any confidence or momentum that Leicester took from their defeat of Tottenham evaporated after 10 seconds. 10.18 seconds to be exact, the amount of time it took Everton to kick off, play the ball back to Jordan Pickford, the goalkeeper to launch it and Abdoulaye Doucouré to score. The fastest Goodison goal was also the quickest ever scored by an Everton player.

Beto held off Boubakary Soumaré as Pickford’s clearance sailed into the Leicester penalty area but otherwise there was no visiting player to be seen as Doucouré latched on to the ball and slotted the fourth-fastest goal in Premier League history beyond Mads Hermansen. Leicester’s defending was appalling. It did not improve.

Everton were two goals ahead inside six minutes. The famine of the Dyche era had well and truly turned into a feast under Moyes. Leicester’s central defensive pairing of Wout Faes and Jannik Vestergaard were again caught day-dreaming, this time by a fine ball out from the back by James Tarkowski. The Everton defender arched a pass around Vestergaard into the run of Beto. The centre-forward raced through to beat Hermansen with a similar finish to Doucouré’s opener. At the other end of the pitch Jamie Vardy simply shook his head in disbelief at what he was witnessing, as well he might.

Beto was tasked with leading the line in the absence of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who is out for approximately six weeks with a hamstring injury, while James Garner replaced Orel Mangala in central midfield following the anterior cruciate ligament tear that has ended the Belgium international’s loan spell from Lyon. The duo seized their opportunities in style. Garner was an elegant, creative influence on his first start in almost four months. Beto worked tirelessly, as he always does, but was also more composed and clinical against a shambolic Leicester rearguard.

Garner and Beto combined to give Everton a 3-0 interval lead for the second home game in succession. Idrissa Gueye instigated the move with a smart pass into his new midfield colleague. Garner dissected Leicester’s central defence from deep inside the Everton half and Beto, clean through on goal yet again, applied a confident finish into the bottom corner.

Beto gets the better of Leicester’s Wout Faes to double Everton’s lead inside six minutes. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images

It could have been worse for Van Nistelrooy’s team, who created one chance of note in the first half when Victor Kristiansen went close from a Jordan Ayew corner. Tarkowski headed over from a Garner corner and Jake O’Brien, who impressed once more at right back, converted from another Garner set piece but from an offside position. Everton also had a strong penalty claim dismissed when Beto was sent sprawling by Vestergaard while a Garner cross was deflected on to the post. All before half-time.

Leicester’s first shot on target came from the substitute Patson Daka in the 73^rd minute. Straight at Pickford. Jesper Lindstrøm and Iliman Ndiaye both went close to adding a fourth before a calamitous mix-up in the Leicester defence between Faes and Caleb Okoli gave Ndiaye the goal his all-round display deserved. The forward breezed into the area before converting into the bottom corner. Chants of ‘Sack the board’ emanated from the Leicester support.