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The Everton manager had stressed before Fulham's visit that the responsibility for scoring goals must not fall solely on the team's strikers. “I demand more goals from my centre-halves and midfielders as well,” he stated. The Senegalese midfielder and the English defender duly obliged, delivering a merited victory over Marco Silva’s ineffective team.

The Merseyside club's second win in nine matches was largely untroubled as Fulham highlighted the reason their top marksman this season is opposition own goals. Apart from a brief flurry in the second half, the visitors were kept quiet throughout by Everton’s superior intensity and quality. The Blues had three goals ruled out for infringements, but a poacher’s finish from Gueye in first-half stoppage time and the defender's late conversion made sure there would be no comeback for their ex-coach.

No one needed a goal as much as Thierno Barry, the Goodison Park forward who had failed to register a shot on target in 10 league games without a shot on target after his big-money move from the Spanish side and missed a gilt-edged chance to put his team 2-0 up at the Stadium of Light on Monday. The 23-year-old directed the first opportunity of the game over the Fulham keeper's crossbar when picked out by Iliman Ndiaye’s fine cross.

Everton controlled the opening stages and the Fulham goalkeeper pushed over James Garner’s long-range set-piece, awarded after the Fulham player was yellow-carded for hauling down Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. Lukic tripped the identical opponent again before halftime but the official, the man in charge, correctly waved away Everton appeals for a sending off. The Fulham boss was taking no further chances, however, and substituted the player at the break.

The striker thought his fortune had changed at last when sliding in at the far post to convert a drilled pass by his teammate. But the elation of a first Everton goal was wiped out by an assistant referee’s flag. Ndiaye was offside when going for Gueye’s cross, and failing to connect, and the VAR backed up the original call. The forward's bad luck may have persisted in the final third, but his all-round performance validated the manager's choice to stick with him. His movement and effort occupied the opposition's back line and contributed to Everton the edge all game.

The Londoners grew into the game slowly with Sander Berge and the ex-Goodison player Alex Iwobi combining effectively in the engine room, but the early danger from the visitors was limited. Raúl Jiménez fired weakly at Jordon Pickford when teed up in the box by his teammate and put a set-piece from a promising location straight into the defensive barrier. That summed up their attacking output.

The Blues, driven on by the midfielder and Ndiaye, had a second goal chalked off for offside when the Fulham goalkeeper saved a Keane header and the captain volleyed in the rebound. The skipper had moved beyond the last defender when nodding down Jack Grealish’s cross in the build-up. But Everton’s next effort past the keeper counted. Vitalii Mykolenko floated a lovely cross to the far post when left unmarked on the left flank by Tim Iroegbunam. Tarkowski met it with a powerful nod off the crossbar and, though the midfielder mishit the rebound, his teammate the scorer finished from point-blank. The sense of release inside the ground was palpable.

Everton had a further effort disallowed early in the second half after the playmaker scored from another inviting delivery from the left. The attacker had cushioned the delivery into Barry, who was offside when challenging the Fulham defender for the ball that fell to the Everton midfielder. Everton would have to wait until the closing stages for the security of a second goal. Dewsbury-Hall was the creator with a corner that Keane glanced past the goalkeeper. He did so with the upper body, and the visitors' protests for a handball were dismissed by the video official.

Fulham posed more danger following the introductions of the forward, the Brazilian and the winger. Pickford saved well with his feet to deny the substitute scoring with his initial involvement and denied the speedster with a crucial save late on.