While Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley stole the headlines as Everton returned to winning ways with a victory over West Ham United on Sunday, Yannick Bolasie's role in the Toffees' success -- and the Belgium striker's revival -- must not go unnoticed.
On the weekend when the alluring prospect of Wayne Rooney coming back to Merseyside was actively encouraged by Ronald Koeman, it was peculiar that Barkley returned to prominence with such aplomb.
The Everton product, now 22, is celebrated at Goodison Park as Rooney's successor in the Scouse genius stakes, and yet too often under Roberto Martinez-and even during Koeman's early tenure-he flattered to deceive, losing his England spot in the process.
After some tough love from the Dutch coach, Barkley appears to have rediscovered his verve again, delivering a superb performance against the Hammers in which he tackled with bite and attacked with imagination, volleying home in the 76th minute to kill off the contest.
Indeed, Barkley could have had another had it not been from an excellent save from the Irons' stopper Adrian, and his interplay with Lukaku and right-back Seamus Coleman bodes well for the Toffees' prospects this season.
While the showing will prompt optimism that Barkley can return to his influential best, Lukaku remains Everton's MVP.
When the powerful attacker is at his best, there isn't a defence in the land that can cope with his effective brand of pace, physical presence and technical menace, and with seven goals in nine, the former Chelsea man is firmly on course to eclipse his return of 18 goals in 37 showings last season.
It helped, perhaps, that Everton were playing West Ham, against whom he has a fearsome scoring record.
Sunday's strike means that Lukaku has now scored in his last seven matches against the East Londoners, for context, only Robin van Persie-who scored in eight successive games against Stoke City-has a better scoring run against a Premier League opponent.
His goal means that he has become the third Everton player to reach 50 Premier League goals, although he appears destined to eclipse both Tim Cahill (56) and Duncan Ferguson (60) as the Toffees' top EPL scorer of all time-the latter's is a record that could well have fallen by the season's end.
Everton started nervously, with Winston Reid largely keeping tabs on Lukaku, but the inevitable goal-when it came-demonstrated not the forward's ferocious attacking presence, but the quick thinking and awareness of Bolasie.
Underpinning the Belgian forward's effectiveness this season is the former Crystal Palace wideman, whose intelligent cut-back on Sunday allowed Everton to finally open up their visitors.
No player in the division has contributed more assists for another than Bolasie has for Lukaku, with the Congolese wideman laying on four goals for his teammate.
"It was a good move by the whole team," Lukaku told journalists. "I think Yannick is shining. I'm very pleased for him to get another assist.
"We have a lot of quality up front, as well as in the defence, and if you score more goals you win more games."
Only Kevin De Bruyne has managed more assists than Bolasie's four this season, while he has also averaged 1.8 key passes per match and is in the EPL's top ten for completed dribbles.
Against West Ham, Bolasie's quickness of thought made the difference, although he was a threat throughout, completing three dribbles, getting off three shots and managing an 81 percent pass success rate.
During his increasingly muddled tenure at Goodison, Martinez struggled to forge a consistent, creative unit from Everton's attacking talents.
However, under Koeman, and with Lukaku revived after being paired with the effervescent Bolasie, the Toffees can again dream of upsetting the established order.