Everton suffered a 5-2 humilation against Premier League strugglers Watford.
Tom Davies had opened the scoring after just four minutes when Demarai Gray cut down the visitors’ left-hand side and teed him up for a simple finish.
That lead lasted 10 minutes as ex-Blues’ forward Josh King drew the Hornets level by prodding the ball past Jordan Pickford at his far post from a free kick.
Richarlison marked his return from injury by meeting a Michael Keane cross with a diving header, just seconds after he had replaced Anthony Gordon.
But the visitors ran riot in the closing stages, first through Juraj Kucka converting from a Juan Hernandez corner to pull Claudio Ranieri’s side level.
King doubled his tally with a sweeping close-range effort before completing a hat-trick by seizing upon poor Everton defending to sidestep Jordan Pickford.
In stoppage time, Emmanuel Dennis heaped on the hosts’ misery by adding a fifth to condemn Rafael Benitez’s side to back-to-back home league defeats.
Here were the key talking points from Goodison Park:
Benitez feels Goodison’s wrath again
Deep down, Rafael Benitez should really have known what to expect.
He had already been on the receiving end of Goodison Park’s wrath during his visits here with three different Premier League clubs over the past 17 years.
The Spaniard can now attest to experiencing it from the other side of the coin after presiding over the most abject outcome of his Everton tenure to date.
Last weekend’s defeat to West Ham failed to draw out the hair-raising evisceration from the Grand Old Lady that had befallen all his predecessors.
Not even the languid performance which accompanied that one-goal reversal to a team which is continuing to build on its European credentials this season.
However the display, more so than the scoreline, against a struggling Watford overstepped a mark even the most patient of Evertonians could not tolerate.
In an already crowded field of modern capitulations, throwing away a slender lead to lose 5-2 inside just 12 minutes will still take some beating.
‘Clueless’ was one of the more polite critiques aimed in Benitez’s direction by those streaming towards the exits as the visitors’ goals began raining down.
It took 11 games for the 61-year-old to feel Goodison’s internal hostility and his side need a strong response to avoid it becoming a regular occurrence.
Rondon is holding the Blues back
The first signs of dissent towards Benitez came with his decision to substitute Anthony Gordon in favour of a returning Richarlison early in the second half.
Post-match, he argued that the need to introduce the Brazil international meant that Everton’s homegrown winger became collateral damage.
Gordon’s hour-long cameo had been the only bright spot in a game which the hosts had, at that point, been passible without fully disgracing themselves.
But the decision to withdraw him proved perplexing given a more logical solution for Richarlison’s foray was already staring his manager in the face.
Salomon Rondon’s fourth consecutive 90-minute outing, predictably, produced as much as his previous appearances leading the line in a royal blue shirt.
Benitez’s perseverance with the lumpen Venezuelan was a necessary evil due to Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s prolonged spells on the sidelines.
Theoretically, the former’s return will lead to Rondon taking up a more suitable role as an impact substitute rather than taking up a starting position.
One shot on target in seven Premier League appearances tells its own story about how the 33-year-old has been holding Everton back in recent weeks.
King extends ‘Everton that’ trend
Josh King never made a full start during his brief spell with Everton.
The Norwegian also failed to score in 11 outings, with his last Goodison goal coming as Bournemouth were relegated at the end of the 2019/20 campaign.
Within 10 minutes on his former stomping ground, he had achieved both before going on to claim the match ball courtesy of a late second-half brace.
Had he not been severely misled by Carlo Ancelotti, King may have been doing the same level of damage for Everton instead of inflicting it on them.
For some time now, there is a phrase which has been regularly uttered at Goodison which translates as anything that could possibly go wrong, does so.
King simply continued that well-established trend of ‘Everton that’.