Mxyt Van Persie inspired by record tilt Everton moved out of the Premier League relegation zone with a ruthless 5-1 win at Brighton on Monday, while Leicester s hopes of survival are hanging by a thread after a 5-3 defeat at Fulham. Everton s Dwight McNeil celebrates scoring their fifth goal with Alex Iwobi and Amadou Onana REUTERS Nottingham Forest also pulled themselves clear of the bottom three as they beat fellow strugglers Southampton 4-3. Brighton are in the hunt to qualify for Europe fo stanley cup r the first time in the club s history, but a heavy schedule appeared to have taken its toll on Roberto De Zerbi s men as they were torn apart by an Everton side that had not won away since October. The Toffees had the dream start as Abdoulaye Doucoure opened the scoring after just 34 seconds. Doucoure s brilliant volley from Dwight McNeil s cross doubled Everton s lead before Brighton goalkeeper Jason Steele deflected McNeil s cross stanley flask into his own net. De Zerbi responded by making four half-time substitutions and Brighton peppered the Everton goal but were caught out on the counter-attack when McNeil showed great poise to round Steele to make it 4-0. Alexis Mac Allister pulled a goal back after Kaoru Mitoma s initial effort came off the post. But McNeil had the final say as he rounded off a dazzling performance by smashing into the top corner in stoppage time. A firs vaso stanley t win in eight games lifts Sean Dyche s men two points clear of the drop zone. It s a quality of performance that we want to build, Dyche said. It s Rhuc Tim Howard unmoved by plaudits Novak Djokovic won twice on Saturday to play for another Italian Open title, his first stanley hrnek final since January. Serbias Novak Djokovic celebrates after winning the semi-final against Dominic Thiem of Austria at the Italian stanley mug Open in Rome. AFP Djokovic, the four-time champion, will play Alexander Sascha Zverev, the youngest Masters Series finalist at 20 since Djokovic won Miami a decade ago at 19. The day could have dragged on for Djokovic, but he closed out Juan Martin del Potro quickly 6-1, 6-4 in their quarterfinal suspended overnight because of rain. stanley cup He resumed 6-1, 1-2 up. Then about seven hours later he dispatched in the semifinals Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-1, 6-0. READ | Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna crash out of Italian Open Thiem, coming off the Madrid final last weekend, stopped Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Djokovic won the Doha title in January but has struggled since then and dropped his coach and support staff. Hes reached his eighth final in Rome, where he won in 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2015. Djokovic called it his best performance of this year and maybe even longer. Im overjoyed and happy with every minute that I spent on the court today, Djokovic said. Everything that I intended to do, I have done it and even more. I am so grateful to experience something like this, because I have been waiting for it and working for it for a long time. Zverev beat American veteran John Isner 6-4, 6-7 5 , 6-1 with tennis greats Rod Laver and Manol
