Ramiro Funes Mori played his first 45 minutes of competitive football since March 2017, as Everton Under-23s went down to a 4-0 Premier League 2 defeat at Arsenal.
Centre-half Funes Mori, who has been sidelined with a serious knee injury sustained playing for Argentina, completed his long-awaited return without any alarms, albeit he could not prevent his side from falling two goals behind before the interval.
Eddie Nketiah deflected in Joe Willock's effort to put Arsenal in front on 12 minutes, with Reiss Nelson doubling the hosts’ lead 14 minutes later.
Nketiah scored twice inside 15 second-half minutes to complete his hat-trick and round off a convincing victory for a dominant Gunners side.