Everton's lightning-fast start sees them rout Leicester

Everton's Abdoulaye Doucouré scored the fastest goal of the season in a 4-0 win over Leicester City on Saturday as the Merseyside club continued their resurgence under David Moyes with their third straight victory in the Premier League.

Timed at 10.18 seconds, Doucouré's strike was the fastest goal Everton had ever scored in the Premier League and the fourth-fastest in league history.

The early goal laid the foundation for a dominant victory at Goodison Park where Beto grabbed a double as Moyes registered three wins in his first four games since taking over from Sean Dyche.

The victory moved Everton up to 15th with 26 points while Leicester remain 17th, one point above the relegation zone after eight defeats in their last nine matches.

"[Things are] sweeter than we felt a couple weeks ago. Great credit to the players for another outstanding performance. It's good to see they're making good progress," Moyes told the BBC.

"We're doing a lot of good things. There's a lot we can try to make better. The job is to make sure we're a Premier League team."

Everton had a lightning start from kick-off when goalkeeper Jordan Pickford launched a long ball forward and Doucouré latched on to it on the run, slipped through the defence and fired into the far bottom corner.

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The goal put a spring in Everton's step and before Leicester could recover from the early blow, the visitors found themselves 2-0 down just five minutes later.

Everton centre back James Tarkowski spotted Beto making a run and the defender's ball in behind was perfect for the Portuguese forward to score a carbon copy of Doucouré's goal with another low shot slotted into the bottom corner.

Moyes' side punished Leicester's high line once again just before half-time when James Garner threaded a ball through to Beto and the 27-year-old curled his shot past the keeper for his third goal of the season.

"I was just running free and saw the space. My teammates know me, I like to run behind. They know," Beto said.

"I knew it was the best moments for me. It wasn't easy, we made it easy."

Everton came off at the break to a standing ovation while the fans chanted Beto's name and the home side continued to probe Leicester's defence in the second half.

Leicester striker Jamie Vardy was largely isolated and manager Ruud van Nistelrooy took him off at the hour-mark after the 38-year-old failed to have a shot on goal and made only nine touches.

But it was the defence that failed Leicester and their sorry afternoon only got worse when a mix-up at the back allowed Iliman Ndiaye to steal the ball near the edge of the box and fire past a hapless Mads Hermansen in goal to make it 4-0.

"If you look at the scoreboard after 10 seconds and after five minutes, if you look at the goals, of course you don't do yourself any favours to come here and get a result starting like that," Van Nistelrooy said.

"Credit to Everton. They've been great against Spurs, Brighton and this one. We have to take it on the chin and improve."