Idrissa Gueye along with Michael Keane find the net as Everton overcome the Cottagers

The Everton manager had made clear before Fulham's visit that the onus for finding the back of the net must not fall solely on his side's strikers. “I demand more goals from my defenders and central players as well,” he insisted. The Senegalese midfielder and Michael Keane responded perfectly, securing a merited victory over Marco Silva’s ineffective side.

Everton’s second win in nine matches was fairly straightforward as Fulham showed the reason their top marksman this season is goals gifted by opponents. Apart from a short spell in the latter period, the visitors were kept quiet throughout by the home team's superior intensity and quality. The Blues had three efforts disallowed for offside, but a close-range strike from Gueye in added time before the break and Keane’s second-half header made sure there would be no comeback for their ex-coach.

No one needed a goal more than Thierno Barry, the Everton attacker who had gone 10 Premier League outings without testing the goalkeeper after his £27m summer arrival from the Spanish side and missed a clear opportunity to put his team 2-0 up at Sunderland on Monday. The 23-year-old headed the earliest chance of the game over Bernd Leno’s goal frame when found by Iliman Ndiaye’s excellent delivery.

Everton dominated the opening stages and the Fulham goalkeeper pushed over James Garner’s long-range set-piece, awarded after Sasa Lukic was yellow-carded for fouling the Everton midfielder. The Serbian tripped the identical opponent again before halftime but the referee, Andrew Madley, rightly ignored home protests for a sending off. The Fulham boss was not risking anything, though, and substituted the player at the interval.

The striker thought his luck had changed at last when arriving at the back post to turn in a low cross by Gueye. But the elation of a maiden strike was erased by an assistant referee’s flag. Ndiaye was offside when going for Gueye’s cross, and failing to connect, and the video assistant referee supported the original call. The forward's bad luck may have continued in the final third, but his all-round performance justified the manager's choice to stick with him. His runs and effort occupied Fulham’s central defenders and helped give the hosts the edge all game.

The Londoners came into the contest gradually with Sander Berge and the former Everton midfielder Alex Iwobi working well in midfield, but the first half threat from the visitors was limited. Raúl Jiménez fired weakly at the England keeper when teed up inside the area by his teammate and sent a set-piece from a dangerous position directly at the defensive barrier. And that was it.

The Blues, inspired by Dewsbury-Hall and the forward, had a another strike chalked off for offside when Leno parried a Keane header and the captain fired home the loose ball. The home captain had just strayed offside when nodding down the winger's delivery in the build-up. But the team's next effort past Leno counted. The left-back floated a perfect ball to the back post when left unmarked on the left by Tim Iroegbunam. The defender connected with a thumping header off the crossbar and, though the midfielder mishit the rebound, his teammate the scorer converted from point-blank. The sense of release inside the ground was palpable.

Everton had a further effort ruled out after the restart after the playmaker scored from a further excellent delivery from the left. The attacker had cushioned the ball into Barry, who was in an offside position when challenging Joachim Anderson for the touch that reached the home player. Everton would have to be patient until the closing stages for the comfort of a second goal. The provider was the creator with a corner that the defender directed over the goalkeeper. He scored with the back of his shoulder, and Fulham’s appeals for handball were dismissed by the video official.

Silva’s side posed more danger following the substitutions of Josh King, Rodrigo Muniz and the winger. Pickford saved well with his feet to prevent the substitute scoring with his first touch and stopped the speedster with a crucial save in the dying moments.