Everton remain in the relegation zone after they turned in a meek performance in going down at home to Aston Villa.
Ollie Watkins came closest to the opener early on but Jordan Pickford justified Everton’s faith in him with his new contract by getting out quickly to deny the Villa forward.
The Toffees should have taken the lead after half-time but Neal Maupay contributed a contender for the club’s miss of the season when he fluffed his lines from six yards out and Tyrone Mings scrambled to clear off the line.
Pickford then denied Watkins for a second time as he tipped the forward’s header onto the post to keep things level but things didn’t stay that way for long as shortly after the hour, Villa were awarded a penalty and at the third time of asking, Watkins found the net to enter the record books.
With that strike, he became the first Villa player ever to score in five successive Premier League games and the first to do so since Paul Rideout in 1985.
And the Villans made sure of victory inside the closing stages when Emiliano Buendía drifted past a challenge easily before beating Pickford with an unstoppable strike to move up to 11th, while Everton stay 18th and a point from safety.