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Sam Allardyce has thrown down the gauntlet to his three strikers to prove who is Everton’s No1 – but says Oumar Niasse is currently leading the race.

Big Sam has handed starts to Niasse, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and new signing Cenk Tosun since he was named manager and admits nobody has nailed down a regular place in the XI.

Niasse was given the nod on Wednesday night against Leicester City and was guilty of missing two glaring opportunities in the 2-1 win.

Calvert-Lewin came off the bench late on while January signing Tosun was an unused substitute.

And asked who he would say is his No.1 striker, Allardyce said: “I wouldn’t.

“We don’t know too much about Cenk yet, he’s coming from abroad which is the hardest thing to do as a frontman – succeed in the Premier League and especially so in January.

“I think Dominic has been the most consistent performer, I don’t think there’s been any doubt about that since I’ve been here and from what people tell me about before I came.

“But it’s the goal-factor.

“Your goal-factor, if you are No.1 in that position, has to be in double figures. Even if you look at Arsenal now, Lacazette has only scored nine and Arsenal, with all due respect to us, will provide you with more chances than us.

“But he has struggled and that is what can happen in your first season in the Premier League.

“Dominic is a young man who will get better and better with experience and not too many players play that amount of games at his age up front.

“So if he improves his goal-scoring ratio ... because he’s certainly got the physical attributes, but he has got to improve his overall game technically and he’s got to find a way of finding more goals in the box when we get to that level.

“We have got to provide a better service for him to score those goals. But if you look at Oumar and Oumar’s minutes-per-goals, it’s exceptionally good. Sadly on Wednesday night he missed two very, very good chances. It could’ve been 2-0 and then after the kick-off it should’ve been 3-0 but he just over-hit that one.

“He could’ve had at least two goals in that game for us which would’ve been fantastic for us and him but the most important thing at the end of the day was we won, which we did.

“But he appears, at the moment, to be the best player to score goals for us at the moment.”

Niasse and Calvert-Lewin have made 35 league appearances this season but have scored just nine goals.

Since arriving in a £27m deal from Besiktas, Turkey international Tosun has yet to score in his two games.