Everton progressed to the FA Cup’s fifth round with a 3-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin marked his return for Carlo Ancelotti’s side by scoring the opener on 30 minutes, sliding in to convert Andre Gomes’ cross at the far post.
Just before the hour mark, Richarlison doubled the Blues’ lead when he rose to meet a James Rodriguez corner just two minutes before Yerry Mina did similar.
A home tie with the winner of Monday’s game between Wycombe Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur now awaits Everton in the competition’s next stage.
Here were the key talking points from Goodison Park:
Blues get back to their best
As a former winner, Carlo Ancelotti cannot be accused of disrespecting the FA Cup. He is, however, discovering how far Everton’s squad limitations stretch.
Another tie against a Yorkshire team currently languishing second-bottom in The Championship carried a potential risk of deja-vu for the Italian’s side.
But the Blues did not make the same mistakes with Sheffield Wednesday as they did against Rotherham and held a firm command of the game throughout.
The 12-day break since their last outing at Wolves has clearly been a valuable learning experience for Ancelotti and his squad after their previous ordeal.
Fielding a far stronger team than the one that struggled against the Millers also helped, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin notably returning to lead the line.
A third goal of the night from Yerry Mina allowed Ancelotti to start conserving the energies of several key players for Leicester City’s visit on Wednesday.
The additional rest will be beneficial but so, too, is the rebuilt momentum.
Calvert-Lewin now a true No.9
As things stand, Ancelotti may need to adjust Calvert-Lewin’s goal target.
Everton’s forwards were set the aim of recording 20 apiece this term by their manager but the England international is making very short work of it.
Calvert-Lewin opened the scoring with his 15th goal of the campaign and came on the back of both a six-game lull and a fortnight’s injury absence.
Equalling last season’s haul – previously a personal best – by late January is further proof of Ancelotti’s groundwork in honing the striker’s core attributes.
They are no longer wasted running the channels; he now finds space in the box to hoover up chances, as he did with Andre Gomes’ ball to the far post.
Ancelotti’s reason for making Calvert-Lewin study Filippo Inzaghi’s highlights reel is already paying off. Everton’s no.9 is now a bona fide goal poacher.
Rodriguez is Goodison’s new master
Reports of James Rodriguez’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
His absence from Everton’s festive schedule through injury led to accusations that the Colombia international’s star appeared to be again on the wane.
Anyone witnessing Rodriguez’s all-encompassing, man-of-the-match display against Neil Thompson’s side would certainly beg to differ with those claims.
The Golden Boot winner is clearly thriving in his new roving role and even dropped into previously unfamiliar positions to help out his teammates.
At one stage, he was decamped in central midfield alongside Doucoure and Gomes as Everton successfully set the tone of the game in the first half.
In attack, it was a similarly vintage display from Rodriguez with two assists created which further underlined his growing influence at Goodison Park.
Those inch-perfect corner kicks within the space of three minutes took his direct goal involvement on home soil to 10 in all competitions this season.
Put into context, the only two Premier League players who have been more impactful than the 29-year-old are Harry Kane and Bruno Fernandes.
At the Grand Old Lady, Rodriguez really is the master of all he surveys.
School of Science gains new pupils
Even the routine nature of this win still marked a new chapter in Everton’s modern history with the first outings of Thierry Small and Tyler Onyango.
Small, in particular, etched his name into the Goodison record books as the club’s new, youngest-ever debutant at the age of 16 years and 176 days.
Both the Solihull-born defender and Onyango have been in and around the first-team setup for several weeks as Ancelotti looks to bolster his intake.
The pair needed to be patient for their competitive bows, with summer arrival Niels Nkounkou being handed matches ahead of them already this season.
But players do not break into David Unsworth’s impressive under-23 side in their teenage years unless they clearly have something about them.
This may prove their final outing for the remainder of the season, with a likely fifth round tie against Tottenham and a European qualification bid to contest.
Make no mistake, though, it will not be the last Evertonians see of the duo.