The Norwich City curse has struck again for Everton, with a defeat to the Canaries contributing to the dismissal of yet another of their managers.

The Toffees have sacked the former Liverpool and Real Madrid boss this afternoon after a 2-1 defeat at Carrow Road on Saturday left them with just one win in 13 games.

Defeat left the Merseyside club 15th and six points clear of the relegation zone with 19 games played, with a banner unfurled in the away end saying 'Benitez get out of our club' during the game.

His strong links to local rivals Liverpool had made the summer appointment controversial for some fans, as Carlo Ancelotti returned to Real Madrid after steering them to 10th place last season.

With big fees spent in recent seasons, the nine-time English champions have only finished in the bottom half in four of the last 16 seasons and have only been outside of the top flight for three seasons in their history - all in the 1950s.

A statement from the Toffees confirmed the Spaniard had left Goodison Park 'with immediate effect' this afternoon, with his exit widely reported since full-time on Saturday.

Everton fans had joined the Norwich fans singing "you're getting sacked in the morning" as City led 2-0 in the first half, with one away fan sprinting onto the pitch and appearing to be making a beeline for Benitez, only to be restrained by a speedy steward.

The dismissal continues a trend, with Marco Silva's last home game being a 2-0 defeat to the Canaries before being sacked in December 2019, with an angry atmosphere at the end of that game.

His exit wasn't immediate though, with a 2-1 defeat at Leicester and a 5-2 loss at Liverpool sealing Silva's fate.

It was for Mike Walker in November 1994 though, with a 0-0 draw against his former club at Carrow Road seeing him dismissed due to a miserable start to the season, that had left Everton bottom with one win from 14 matches.

Howard Kendall's final away game of his first spell in charge of the club also proved to be at Carrow Road, despite a 1-0 win in May 1987 that all but confirmed the Division One title.

With English clubs banned from competing in Europe after the Heysel disaster, Kendall decided to take over at Spanish side Athletic Bilbao, after seeing his second title of a successful spell with the Toffees.

Speaking after Saturday's game, Benitez had said: "We are disappointed, like the fans. What we have to do is improve things on the pitch.

"We have to keep working hard, with players coming back, we have to make the right decisions and try to be better, like we did in the second half.

"Overall, you can see this team reacting. We have to be more proactive and we cannot be conceding goals in the first minutes.

"The only positive is that the team is reacting and that means that they care and they are trying but the bad thing is the mistakes that are costing us games and points every week."