Everton out of relegation zone with first Premier League away win since August

Mason Holgate fired resurgent Everton out of the Premier League relegation zone with the winning goal in a 2-1 victory at Leicester.

The defender’s header secured back-to-back league wins for just the second time this season as the Toffees moved above Leeds, who were beaten at Arsenal on Sunday, and Burnley.

Vitalii Mykolenko’s stunning opener was cancelled out by Patson Daka – following comical Everton defending – but the Toffees recovered to give themselves a huge lifeline.

It was just their second away win in the Premier League this season and first since August.

Trailing Burnley by five points before beating Chelsea last week, the Toffees are now a point above the bottom three after the Clarets lost to Aston Villa and Leeds’ 2-1 defeat to the Gunners.

Everton also still have a game in hand and it represents a dramatic turnaround but they needed three fine second-half saves from Jordan Pickford to earn the points.

Leicester – who lost their Europa Conference League semi-final second leg 1-0 to Roma to bow out 2-1 on aggregate on Thursday – remain 14th.

The Foxes’ season has unravelled having been three points off the top seven at the start of the year with boss Brendan Rodgers ready to revamp his squad in the summer.

Everton, unchanged from their vital win over Chelsea, would have surely been buoyed to see Jamie Vardy only among the substitutes but they needed Yerry Mina to bail them out after three minutes.

The Toffees lost the ball in midfield and Kelechi Iheanacho darted towards goal, he slipped in Daka to beat Pickford but not the sliding Mina who diverted the goalbound shot behind.

But, despite Leicester’s start, it was Everton who grabbed the lead after just six minutes.

The Foxes were slow to react from a