Sean Dyche’s Everton reign began with a hard-fought win over Arsenal.
A dominant display against the Premier League leaders saw James Tarkowski settle matters on the hour mark after he converted a Dwight McNeil corner.
The defender’s far-post header capped off a maiden victory for Dyche as the new Blues’ manager and his side’s first in over three-and-a-half months.
Here were the key talking points from Goodison Park:
Blues regain a familiar feeling
Infamously, Sean Dyche once claimed that Everton had forgotten how to win.
That remark after his Burnley side snatched a 3-2 victory over his future employers in last season’s relegation dog fight hinted at a wider issue.
Although the 51-year-old maintains that his comments were somewhat misconstrued, the Blues’ incapability to accrue victories hardly disproved it.
Not since October’s comfortable dismantling of Crystal Palace had Everton sealed maximum points as another battle for Premier League survival loomed.
History also risked weighing on Dyche at the start of his Goodison reign, with none of its managers losing their opening game since Billy Bingham in 1973.
His new charges certainly know how to win now and did so emphatically; reducing a title-chasing Arsenal to half-chances and perennially second-best.
Dyche’s rise with Burnley was founded on principles of ‘legs, hearts, minds’ but Evertonians would take another part of the anatomy as a starting point.
They showed it in abundance to reacquaint themselves with a familiar feeling.
Doucoure roars in from the cold
Another fresh start has meant more to some Everton players than others.
Dyche’s clean slate approach saw Abdoulaye Doucoure return to the fold after a brief spell of banishment in the death throes of Frank Lampard’s tenure.
The midfielder had paid the price for allegedly speaking out of turn against his soon-to-be former manager and was forced to train away from the first team.
But he roared in from the cold against the Gunners with a display worthy of the Man of the Match award, had Amadou Onana not stolen top billing.
Working in tandem with the Belgian, Doucoure’s guile and experience shone through as the visitors struggled to gain a foothold in the engine room.
He should really have opened the scoring, too, when Dwight McNeil’s floated cross found him unmarked for a downward header which bounced wide.
The 30-year-old’s recent exile appeared to have killed off hopes of Everton taking up the option of a one-year extension to his contract this summer.
But Doucoure’s presence alongside Onana could provide a perfect foil as the young playmaker’s star continues to rise in Dyche’s functioning machine.
Unity reigns supreme again
Little has changed between Everton’s latest and most recent home game.
Four seats remained unoccupied in the directors’ box as the club’s current board members stayed away for a second home fixture in succession.
Disenfranchised supporters also continued to remonstrate against their absentee hierarchy, unfurling array of banners in Goodison’s shadow.
Another cacophony of boos rang out at half-time as referee David Coote and his fellow officials were harangued over their supposed inconsistent decisions.
That, however, is where the similarities begin and end.
Dyche had appealed for all Everton fans to coalesce behind him, regardless of their current feelings towards those floundering higher up the food chain.
Yet the several hundred who pounded the pavement before kick-off proved it is possible to simultaneously back their team while opposing the boardroom.
From the first whistle until the last, the Grand Old Lady provided its unstinting support to their players with a show of faith that reaped a handsome reward.
Everton’s new manager knows the importance of having his team united with its fanbase at the outset and, so far, that communion appears to be in effect.