Managerless Everton suffered further misery as Charlie Austin's brace for Southampton condemned them to a 4-1 defeat at St Mary's.
Saints manager Mauricio Pellegrino finally handed Austin a chance from the start and he repaid the new-found faith shown in him by converting two second-half headers, with a late Steven Davis effort completing the scoring.
Dusan Tadic had put the hosts ahead only for David Unsworth's Everton, showing eight changes to the side humbled 5-1 by Atalanta in the Europa League on Thursday, to level in spectacular style through Gylfi Sigurdsson.