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David Moyes had made clear before Fulham's visit that the onus for scoring goals must not rest only on the team's strikers. “I want more goals from my centre-halves and midfielders as well,” he stated. Idrissa Gueye and Michael Keane rose to the occasion, delivering a merited victory over Marco Silva’s ineffective team.

Everton’s second win in nine outings was relatively comfortable as the visitors highlighted the reason their top marksman this season is goals gifted by opponents. Aside from a brief flurry in the latter period, the visitors were subdued throughout by Everton’s greater urgency and technical ability. Moyes’ team had three goals ruled out for infringements, but a close-range strike from the midfielder in first-half stoppage time and the defender's late conversion made sure there would be no reprieve for their ex-coach.

No one needed a goal more than Thierno Barry, the Everton forward who had failed to register a shot on target in 10 league games without a shot on target after his £27m summer arrival from the Spanish side and spurned a clear opportunity to put his team 2-0 up at Sunderland earlier in the week. The youngster directed the first opportunity of the game over Bernd Leno’s goal frame when found by Iliman Ndiaye’s excellent delivery.

Everton dominated the opening stages and the visiting shot-stopper tipped over James Garner’s 30-yard free-kick, given after the Fulham player was yellow-carded for hauling down Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. The Serbian brought down the identical opponent again before halftime but the referee, the man in charge, rightly ignored home protests for a second yellow. Silva was taking no further chances, however, and withdrew the player at the interval.

The striker thought his luck had finally turned when sliding in at the back post to turn in a drilled pass by his teammate. But the elation of a maiden strike was wiped out by an linesman's decision. The attacker was in an illegal position when going for Gueye’s cross, and missing, and the VAR backed up the original call. The forward's bad luck may have continued in front of goal, but his all-round performance justified the manager's choice to keep the faith. His movement and work-rate occupied Fulham’s central defenders and helped give the hosts the edge all game.

Fulham grew into the game slowly with Sander Berge and the former Everton midfielder Alex Iwobi combining effectively in the engine room, but the first half threat from the visitors was minimal. Raúl Jiménez shot tamely at the England keeper when teed up in the box by Iwobi and put a free-kick from a promising location straight into the Everton wall. That summed up their attacking output.

Everton, inspired by the midfielder and Ndiaye, had a another strike disallowed for an infringement when the Fulham goalkeeper parried a Keane header and James Tarkowski fired home the rebound. The home captain had moved offside when heading on the winger's delivery in the buildup. But the team's next effort past the keeper did stand. The left-back floated a perfect ball 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 Iroegbunam mishit the rebound, his teammate Gueye converted from close range. The sense of release inside the ground was palpable.

The home side had a further effort ruled out early in the second half after Dewsbury-Hall found the bottom corner from another inviting Mykolenko cross. The attacker had cushioned the ball into the striker, who was offside when challenging Joachim Anderson for the touch that fell to the Everton midfielder. The team would have to be patient until the closing stages for the comfort of a second goal. The provider was the architect with a set-piece that Keane glanced past Leno. He scored with the back of his shoulder, and Fulham’s appeals for handball were dismissed by the video official.

Fulham posed more danger after the substitutions of Josh King, Rodrigo Muniz and Adama Traoré. The Everton keeper made a fine stop with his feet to deny the substitute scoring with his first touch and stopped the speedster with another important stop late on.