Everton recorded back-to-back wins for only a third time this season at Huddersfield.

In another lacklustre first-half performance, it was Cenk Tosun who handed the Blues the lead when he fired superbly into the bottom corner.

Sam Allardyce’s side were unable to add to their lead for much of the second half, despite an improved performance after the interval.

But they got their just rewards nonetheless when Oumar Niasse’s persistence allowed Leighton Baines to tee up Idrissa Gueye to drill home a second.

Here were the key talking points from the John Smith’s Stadium:

Confidence returning for Keane

 

Of all the negatives of the Sam Allardyce reign, there has been one piece of positivity and that is the return to form of Michael Keane.

The ex-Burnley man had enjoyed a solid start to life at Goodison Park and appeared good value for money before Everton’s poor form put an end to it.

Keane has come in for stern criticism from the Evertonian faithful as a result but that has noticeably changed over the past few weeks.

Pairing him with Phil Jagielka, coupled with the return of Leighton Baines, has seen Keane start to show the kind of form he enjoyed at Turf Moor last season.

He is far from being value for money just yet but this return to a semblance of form shows he is not quite the write off many believed him to be.

January signings standing tall

 

After last summer’s transfer window proved a catalogue of expensive failures for Everton, their January business has been a quantifiable success.

The captures of Theo Walcott and Cenk Tosun three months ago are turning out to be excellent business for the Blues.

Walcott was again comfortably the best player on the pitch for Everton and added an assist to his match-winning strike against Newcastle on Monday.

Tosun, meanwhile, set the visitors on their way to victory with a superbly taken opener that took his Premier League goal tally to five since his arrival.

Both will be key players next season, regardless of who is in charge.

Everton will be hoping that whoever they sign this summer can provide a similarly worthwhile return as the pair are proving to be.

Blues already starting to slip

 

With Everton’s season effectively over, it was almost inevitable that some players would be guilty of allowing their focus to slip.

In truth, many of them haven’t been focused for much of the campaign.

The midweek win over Newcastle was littered with mistakes, and it was more of the same at the John Smith’s Stadium.

Wayne Rooney was a particularly poor offender once again with a performance that can be described as sloppy at best.

A 2-0 win will paper over the cracks and allow many to forget that this was again a game in which several of Everton’s players just weren’t up to the expected level.

Vlasic stakes a claim with comeback

 

Like several of Everton’s summer signings, it has been a frustrating first season for Nikola Vlasic.

A bright start was followed by disappointment, as he was forced to settle for little more than a place on the bench for the past several months.

Often he has been missing from the match day squad entirely but when handed a chance to impress, the Croatia international did enough to prove his worth.

His link-up play was solid and his efforts to help Seamus Coleman defensively also commendable.

It was not a glittering return to first team action by any means but enough to give him a chance of seeing more action in the final two weeks of the season.