Wayne Rooney scored from his own half to haunt his former manager David Moyes with a first hat-trick for Everton in a 4-0 thrashing of West Ham United on Wednesday which lifted the Blues out of the Premier League drop zone.
With Sam Allardyce watching from the stands ahead of his expected appointment as Everton manager, Rooney found the net for the first time in five games by heading in on the rebound in the 18th minute after his penalty was saved by Joe Hart.
Rooney struck again at the near post and piled more misery on Moyes by capitalising on a scrambled clearance from Hart and blasting the ball past his former England team mate from inside his own half.
Ashley Williams completed the rout by heading home from a corner after conceding a penalty for a foul on Diafra Sakho when the score was 2-0, but Jordan Pickford came to the rescue by turning away Manuel Lanzini’s spot-kick.
Elsewhere, a first-half goal from Sadio Mane and a double by substitute Mohamed Salah after the break gave Liverpool a 3-0 win at Stoke City as they continued their push towards the Premier League’s top four.
Mane fired Liverpool ahead with a superbly dinked finish in the 17th minute and set up the second for Salah, who netted with a brilliant volley in the 77th before sealing Liverpool’s win with a clinical finish after racing clear of his markers.
Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet was lucky to receive only a yellow card for a lunging tackle after the opener from Mane, who hit the outside of the post with only goalkeeper Lee Grant to beat shortly before halftime.
Liverpool’s former midfielder Joe Allen squandered two good chances for Stoke after the break, shooting wide of the far post and volleying over the bar from seven metres before Salah’s double took his season’s tally to 17 goals in all competitions