Romelu Lukaku scored his 22nd and 23rd Premier League goals of the season as Everton came from behind to record a 4-2 win over Leicester City in Sunday afternoon's pulsating affair at Goodison Park.
Leicester trailed before leading 2-1 in the opening 10 minutes of action, but Everton turned things around on home soil to move level on points with sixth-placed Arsenal in the Premier League table.
Everton boss Ronald Koeman made two changes to the team that started against Manchester United last time out, with fit-again Morgan Schneiderlin replacing Gareth Barry, and Matthew Pennington coming in for Ashley Williams, who was suspended following his sending-off at Old Trafford on Tuesday night.
As for Leicester, Craig Shakespeare rung the changes from his team's victory over Sunderland during the week as Daniel Amartey, Ben Chilwell, Andy King, Marc Albrighton and Islam Slimani all came into the XI.
Incredibly, Everton took the lead inside the first 31 seconds at Goodison Park as a brilliant advantage from referee Bobby Madley allowed Tom Davies to break into the Leicester box and slide the ball past Kasper Schmeichel under pressure from a number of white shirts.
The home side continued to flood players forward in the early exchanges, but they were undone on the counter-attack in the fourth minute when Demarai Gray's pace took him clear of the chasing pack, and the Englishman threaded a super ball into Slimani to finish through the legs of Joel Robles for 1-1.
The explosive start was not finished, however, and Leicester went ahead in the 10th minute as Albrighton's free kick from a wide angle floated over the head of Joel to register the third goal of the match, leaving the home supporters dumbfounded after their team passed up their early advantage.
Everton were always dangerous though, and the Toffees levelled the scores in the 23rd minute when Lukaku headed a wonderful Ross Barkley cross into the bottom corner as the Belgian centre-forward made it 12 goals in his last eight Premier League games at Goodison Park.
Lukaku might have netted his second of the match 10 minutes before the break after working some space outside the Leicester box, but the striker missed the crossbar during a difficult period for the visitors.
Schmeichel produced a brilliant piece of goalkeeping to prevent Barkley from sliding one into the back of the net in the 40th minute, but the Denmark international could do nothing but watch from the resulting corner as Phil Jagielka headed Everton back ahead, with the centre-back netting his second goal in the space of five days.
Everton made a fast start to the second period as they looked to register their fourth goal of the afternoon, and Schmeichel had to save from Kevin Mirallas in the 49th minute as the Foxes were forced into a defensive position.
The Toffees continued to force the issue as the second half developed, and they had their fourth just before the hour when Lukaku smashed home his 23rd Premier League goal of the season from close range after Leicester had failed to deal with a corner from Mirallas.
Shakespeare, with one eye on next week's Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid, withdrew both Jamie Vardy and Gray in the 61st minute as Leicester looked to stem the flow of traffic at Goodison Park.
The pace of the match dropped after Everton scored their fourth, with Leicester enjoying more possession in the final third as they looked to avoid their first defeat under the stewardship of Shakespeare.
Leonardo Ulloa was on the field less than 60 seconds when he had a brilliant chance to score a third for Leicester and potentially set up a grandstand finish, but the striker's close-range header from a Riyad Mahrez cross was blocked by Idrissa Gueye.
Barkley tried his luck from distance late on before Joel kept out a close-range Ulloa header down the other end, but 4-2 was how it finished on Merseyside as Koeman's side kept the pressure on Arsenal and Man United in the top six.
Leicester's attention will now switch to the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final away to Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night, while Everton are next in league action at home to Burnley on Saturday afternoon.
Matt Law
