David Moyes has liberated Everton from the Dyche straitjacket and is reaping the rewards | OneFootball

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. 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 ten 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.

He is no stranger to swift starts at Everton. They scored after 27 seconds of his first reign. This was a microcosm of an early impact on his return: one goal in 10.18 seconds, two in six minutes, three wins in four. He has had a transformative effect that has made a mockery of the suggestions Moyes is similar to Dyche. The Scot shares a pragmatic bent but shows a greater willingness to attack. “The players have just given themselves a bit of confidence and positivity,” said Moyes, downplaying his own contribution.

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David Moyes is enjoying a remarkable return to Goodison Park (Getty Images)

But he has liberated Everton from the Dyche straitjacket. Rampant and buoyant, they have been 3-0 up at half-time in consecutive games at Goodison. Given the context, the scorelines could feel surreal. In any context, it would be unusual for both Jordan Pickford and James Tarkowski to have an assist before latecomers had taken their seats.

For Pickford, it came in the sort of time in which Usain Bolt used to cover 100m. It was the fourth fastest goal ever in the Premier League, the quickest by a home side and the quickest in Goodison’s 133 years. It was also an indictment of Leicester. They have conceded 26 goals in 11 league games under Ruud van Nistelrooy. The Dutchman always used to be guarantee of goals; just in a rather different way. Defensive disorganisation has been a theme of his tenure, even if each of his back four was in a team relegated two years ago.

“It was too easy,” lamented Van Nistelrooy. “The game was lost after six minutes. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb.” But in a tale of two mid-season managerial changes, one going better than the other, Leicester have lost eight of their last nine games under Van Nistelrooy, the victory at Tottenham the anomaly. They may wonder if they soon require a third manager of the campaign; or a fourth, given they have already had one caretaker.

Mads Hermansen returned to the Leicester goal after seven weeks out and was beaten in the 11th second. Doucoure controlled Pickford’s punt forward, powered between Victor Kristiansen and Jannik Vestergaard and slotted in a shot.

Beto’s maiden brace for Everton followed. With Dominic Calvert-Lewin out for several weeks, Beto is the lone fit striker left at Goodison Park. One was all they needed here. “Sometimes in life you need an opportunity and he got one,” added Moyes, who confirmed there are ongoing conversations as he seeks to bring in Flamengo midfielder Carlos Alcaraz on loan.

Beto took his chance. Dyche’s biggest buy was Moyes’ potent finisher, Beto becoming the first player to score twice in a game for Everton since Wolves’ Craig Dawson did by mistake.

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Leicester appear unable to arrest their slump (Getty Images)

The Portuguese struck in similar fashion courtesy of two defence-splitting passes from deep. Tarkowski supplying the first, the fit-again James Garner the second. Beto showed unexpected composure to slot both in. Yet Leicester’s defence looked far too vulnerable, cut open by one ball each time.

Their haplessness was summed up by Everton’s fourth goal, Iliman Ndiaye capitalising on confusion between Wout Faes and Caleb Okoli to score his third goal in as many games. Leicester were insipid in the extreme, a team seemingly without a backbone. “I see this game as a disappointing one and an off one,” added Van Nistelrooy.

That felt an understatement. The supporters were less measured. Pessimism had set in long before the final whistle. “We’re going down,” sang the Leicester fans. Their ire was not directed at Van Nistelrooy. They chorused “sack the board”. In a battle of two clubs who have sacked the manager this season, there was an emphatic winner.