Idrissa Gueye and Michael Keane scored as Everton claimed a deserved 2-0 Premier League win over Fulham on Saturday in a game in which they had the ball in the net on five occasions.
Everton moved up 11th in the table with 15 points from 11 games, while Fulham remained 15th with 11 points from the same number of matches.
Everton were full value for their victory and had three goals disallowed for offside as the ability to finish chances that has largely eluded them for much of this season returned.
Fulham have lost four of their last five games in the Premier League and sit a point above the relegation zone having never seriously threatened the Everton goal in what will be another worrying display for manager Marco Silva.
“We played really well to be honest and dominated most of the game,” Everton captain James Tarkowski told BBC Sport. “We got that clean sheet finally. Lately, we’ve not scored when we needed to in games and conceded a couple of sloppy goals.
“The margins are really small at this level but today we got it right. We had a couple of disallowed goals that were close.”
Everton had the ball in the net on three occasions in the first half, but only one counted.
Thierno Barry, having his best performance in an Everton shirt, and Tarkowski both had efforts disallowed for offside, before it was third time lucky when Gueye’s effort stood in the fourth minute of added time before the break.
Tarkowski’s header from Jack Grealish’s cross struck the crossbar and Tim Iroegbunam’s scuffed shot from the rebound fell kindly for Gueye to smash the ball into the net.
Everton’s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall also had a goal ruled out for offside early in the second period, before Fulham started to work their way into the game.
Rodrigo Muniz came off the bench on 58 minutes and went off again on 75 minutes after feeling unwell, but he forced a good low stop from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
Everton’s second goal finally arrived on 81 minutes when Michael Keane looped the ball into the net off his shoulder from Dewsbury-Hall’s corner to make sure of the points for the hosts.
