Ronald Koeman said he has been hugely impressed by Ademola Lookman since the £10m teenager’s arrival from Charlton Athletic and would not be afraid to give him a start in the first team.

The 19-year-old forward made a sensational debut against Manchester City last Sunday, coming on for the last four minutes of the game and managing to score the final goal in a 4-0 victory, and Koeman explained he was happy to give him his chance so early because he already liked what he had seen in training.

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“I think we will be keeping him fairly close to the first team,” the Everton manager said. “I am really impressed by the young boy and what he is showing us. Not just in the last couple of minutes against Man City, although that was a big moment for the boy and everybody else because it made the result that bit more special, but you can tell from his attitude and his quality in the training sessions that he can be a really top player.”

Lookman only joined the club a few days before making his debut but at no time, according to Koeman, did he appear nervous or overawed by the prospect of stepping up to Premier League level. “He came from a lower league team, and with all due respect, you think he might take a bit of time to get used to working at a higher intensity,” Koeman said. “But even with his age and without any experience of the Premier League he showed his quality straight away. You could tell by the reaction of the rest of the players. Footballers only take a day or two to work out whether a new signing is any good or not, they know almost straight away, and they saw a player working at their own intensity.

“I am not saying that Ademola doesn’t have anything to learn, but he is starting from a good position. It was already a big compliment to him that he was part of the squad last weekend, ahead of several other players with more experience, and based on what we have already seen I would not be afraid to give him a start.”

That might not come at Crystal Palace on Saturday – after last weekend’s performance there are no extra injuries and no obvious need for Koeman to change his team – though the manager is keen to stress Everton need to keep their feet on the ground and not get carried away by one impressive victory. “If you win 4-0 it is a big result, and the players enjoy training that little bit more in the week that follows, but we can’t keep celebrating one game because in football you always have to prepare for the next one,” he said. “That applies to the young players especially.” In addition to Lookman, the 18-year-old midfielder Tom Davies also scored his first goal last week, and being a home-grown product, not to mention a nephew of the 1969-70 title winner Alan Whittle, the player has found himself the centre of attention.

“Tom needs to learn to deal with that attention but we will help him,” Koeman said. “He is a young player who took his chance in the first team, he is entitled to be happy about that, but if he starts to think he is the big man at Everton we will do something to help him keep his two feet on the ground. Just this week we have been showing him clips of some of the things he could have done better against City, just so he knows it wasn’t quite a perfect performance, but he is a good boy and a really hard working player. We are not expecting him to lose focus or start to get sloppy.”

Everton still have a lot of ground to make up if they are to finish any higher than seventh, and few imagine Koeman will be able to crack the top six in his first season, though the manager has a simple philosophy. “Don’t look ahead of yourself, just concentrate on winning your games and see where you end up,” he said. “I was impressed by the whole team last weekend, we did a good job. Now we must prepare ourselves for Palace. They might be struggling a little but they still have good players and they are strong at home.”

Meanwhile, Gerard Deulofeu is heading to Milan after Everton reached agreement on his loan move until the end of the season.