Magic Moyes lifts Everton as players relish goal fest

If Sean Dyche needed half a season to accomplish it, David Moyes has achieved as much in half a month. Everton sacked a manager with three wins in 19 Premier League games.

- RICHARD JOLLY

His replacement has doubled that tally in their last three matches.

Everton scored seven league goals in open play in four months under Dyche. They have delivered seven more in their last two home matches for Moyes. A heady couple of weeks has left Everton 10 points above the bottom three. “I wish I was 10 points clear at the top of the league,” smiled the Scot. But if the returning manager placed his legacy on the line by coming back, he again looks like Everton’s Moyesiah.

Moyes inherited a team with a chronic inability to find the net. If the failings of an embarrassingly feeble Leicester side helped, he now has one who struck at record-breaking pace. Some 137 years after Everton joined the Football League, Abdoulaye Doucoure scored their fastest ever goal. “After 10 seconds I was thinking, ‘My goodness, this is fabulous’,” said Moyes.