Everton 2-1 Leicester: Theo Walcott scores twice as Foxes left to rue Riyad Mahrez absence

If Riayd Mahrez is supposed to be worth £90m, then Everton have every right to think they got a bargain in Theo Walcott.

The two players were the major influences on this contest, Mahrez is his absence seeming to drain the team spirit and fight out of sorry Leicester, who collapsed as soon as nervous opponents were settled by an opening goal.

It was £20m Walcott who scored that pivotal goal...and who ultimately proved the match-winner. In doing so, too, he also suggested his fee could just be the bargain of this often bizarre and convoluted transfer window.

He seemed that here, providing a sweet opening goal on 25 minutes which turned the contest on its head, inspiring an Everton spell where they dominated, and took a lead which Leicester couldn't claw back, despite a late, soft penalty that inspired a furious finale.

Everton's goal summed actually offered an interesting insight into the anxiety that grips Goodison at present...and why the fearful impatience of the crowd can be counter-productive.

When young Tom Davies delayed on the edge of his own box looking for a pass to keep possession and spring forward, there was a wave of groans around the fraught terraces.

Yet he was aware enough to play a clever pass into space on the right, and suddenly Everton were away, on a rare counter in what was a tricky first half for the home side.

Davies himself almost got on the end of the move, but as Ben Chilwell intercepted, he was harried by Cuco Martina into a mistake, allowing Sigurdsson to steal into the box and set up Walcott for a simple tap in.

A fine goal – even if Leicester cried foul for Martina's challenge – and yet if the crowd had their way, Davies would have lumped the ball out of his danger area at the first opportunity, gifting his opponents the ball.

The visitors had started so much brighter, and almost taking the lead on two minutes when Harry Maguire headed over, before Chilwell's cross was headed onto the bar by Wilfred Ndidi.

Yet a goal can change everything, and Everton seemed so much more alive, so much sharper in their passing after Walcott's intervention.

They were helped too, by a promising understanding between the new signing from Arsenal and Seamus Coleman, whose energy and enthusiasm on his return after 10 months from such horrendous injury was a joy to behold.

It hints at an Everton right flank as fruitful as that greatest Goodison partnership of recent years between Baines and Pienaar, and certainly it was this side where everything good from the Blues was going to come, as the events before half time proved.

First, Walcott combined brilliantly with Sigurdsson to tee up a sitter for Niasse, but he inexplicably shot wide. Soon after though, Rooney's brilliant cross was headed back by Michael Keane, and there was Walcott to smash home on the volley.

Had Niasse not exposed his poor technique when sent marauding through on goal just before the break, the game would have been killed stone dead...which is no doubt what Leicester's players would have liked to have done to Mahrez during Everton's inspired spell.

The suggestion from within the visiting camp was he was selected to play before his disappearing act, and that can only cause anger and resentment in the Leicester squad going forward, even as a Europa League place is theirs for the taking.

Maybe that was why there was so little fight in Claude Puel's team as soon as they went behind, though when Vardy converted from the spot as Rooney pulled back Ndidi in the box, it inspired a furious finale, as Iheanacho hit the bar, and James saw a shot cleared from the line by Martina.