The Blues made it three matches unbeaten on the road as goals from Cenk Tosun and Idrissa Gana Gueye sealed a 2-0 victory at Huddersfield Town.
Having secured 27 points from a possible 39 at Goodison Park, Everton showed progress is being made away from the Grand Old Lady as they took their recent away haul to seven points from nine.
Their recent form under boss Sam Allardyce has also seen the Toffees collect 14 points from their past seven matches – losing to only champions Manchester City in the process – conceding a single goal in their past four games.
Tosun put them ahead at the John Smith’s Stadium with an excellently-taken first-half finish. The frontman raced onto a through ball from Theo Walcott in the 39th minute and finished clinically inside the far post. Like his previous four Everton strikes - scored against Burnley, Brighton and Stoke - it was a proper striker’s finish.
The points were made safe on 77 minutes as fine work from substitute Oumar Niasse ended with the forward crossing from the right. Leighton Baines teed up Gana and the midfielder took his chance with a neat finish into the bottom right-hand corner.
The away-day win completed a double over Huddersfield who had suffered a 2-0 defeat at Goodison in the corresponding meeting in December.
Five days on from beating Newcastle United 1-0 at Goodison, Everton made one change to his line-up, Sam Allardyce naming Nikola Vlasic for the Croatian’s first start since mid-January. Yannick Bolasie dropped down the bench, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s back injury ruled him out of the squad. Morgan Schneiderlin (dead leg) and Leighton Baines (cut forehead) were passed fit to play.
The Terriers entered the game on the cusp of preserving their Premier League status for a second successive season. Understandably, there wasn’t a spare seat inside the John Smiths Stadium, with 2,300 Toffees having made the trip across the Pennines for the first competitive meeting between the clubs on Yorkshire soil in almost 20 years.
Play was rather hurried and frantic in the opening minutes, a battle in midfield with neither side able to string together clear-cut chances. Everton then began to settle and, with a quarter of an hour played, a patient move - consisting of around 20 short, sharp passes - ended when Wayne Rooney over-hit a ball over the top aimed at Theo Walcott’s well-timed run.
The hosts had a couple of sights of goal but Steve Mounie shot tamely at Jordan Pickford and Terence Kongolo blazed over from the edge of the box having been picked out from a quickly-taken short corner.
Both of those efforts had been ambitious - and the same could be said of Rooney’s first-time half-volley from far on the right touchline which was sliced narrowly wide and into the side-netting.
The first half livened up as it progressed. Huddersfield looked more threatening from moves down their right flank where midfielder Alex Pritchard and full-back Florent Hadergjonaj were combining well. Indeed, from one cut-back, Rajiv Van la Parra side-footed just over the target having galloped onto it from midfield.
Huddersfield keeper Jonas Lossl had a quiet first 38 minutes - but the Danish goalkeeper’s first task of the afternoon was to collect the ball from the back of the net.
Tosun’s deadlock-breaking goal came about from fine, purposeful play from Walcott who had carried the ball a full 40 yards before releasing the Turkey international with a well-weighted slide-rule pass. Tosun allowed the ball to run across his body before taking one touch to control and another to bury an inch-perfect low finish inside the far corner of the net. It was a true striker’s finish - his fifth goal for the Toffees since his January switch from Besiktas.
Tosun’s opener was the difference at the break - and within 60 seconds of the restart it was almost two for the Toffees as Vlasic forced Lossl into a good low save following another swift Everton counter-attack.
Moments later, an equally as good chance fell the way of Seamus Coleman who, from a Baines free-kick, ghosted in unmarked but could not generate enough power on his finish to beat Lossl.
Coleman then brought another save out of the Terriers glovesman, this time from a neat flick from Vlasic who had cleverly spotted the run from the full-back on his inside.
Huddersfield tried to rally but they encountered a stubborn Everton defence, marshalled excellently in the central areas by captain Phil Jagielka and cohort Michael Keane.
Wayne Rooney made way on the hour for Tom Davies and he was followed off the field 10 minutes later by Tosun who had done his job with his earlier goal.
And it was another substitute who made the difference as Niasse came on with 72 minutes on the clock and played a key part in helping his fellow Senegalese Gana seal the points.
The forward raced down the right flank to collect a long ball and, with the chance looking gone, he whipped in a low cross. Baines was on hand to take a touch, tee up Gana, and the midfielder slotted home first-time into the bottom right-hand corner to seal more away-day joy for the Blues.
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