The heavily-favoured home side got off to a hot start with striker Brian Brobbey earning a penalty within the first two minutes. Steven Berghuis, who started on the right wing instead of Bertrand Traore, calmly slotted the ball in the left-hand corner behind RKC goalkeeper Joey Kesting, scoring his first goal of the current Eredivisie campaign.
Fan favourite Davy Klaassen got close to doubling the home side’s lead in the 17th minute, but saw Kesting save a sharp effort from the edge of the box.
RKC managed to only threaten Ajax once in the opening half via Sylvester van der Water, but the winger recklessly fired his effort from inside the box way over the crossbar.
Midfielder Kenneth Taylor, who tallied two goals and three assists in his last five league games, doubled Ajax’s lead mere minutes before half-time, finishing a high-paced attack set up by striker Brian Brobbey and captain Jordan Henderson, who delivered the assist.
Eleven minutes after the break, Belgian youngster Mika Godts was inches away from putting the 3-0 up on the score board with the VAR denying him his fourth league goal of the season for an offside infringement.
With more busy weeks coming up, Ajax boss Francesco Farioli used most of his substitutions early on in the second half, giving the likes of Kenneth Taylor, Brian Brobbey and Jorrel Hato some extra minutes of rest for next Tuesday's cup game away at AZ.
After 75 minutes, Ajax were denied yet another goal through VAR intervention as a Wout Weghorst header got cancelled for offside.
The silenced visitors weren't ready to give up just yet and hit back late with a goal from former Ajax hopeful Mohammed Ihattaren, whose effort slowly found its way past 41-year-old goalkeeper Remko Pasveer.
RKC could not find their way to an equaliser, handing Ajax the three points in their first game after the winter break. Ajax reduce the gap to league leaders PSV to three points and will hope for a surprising result in the reigning champion's home game against AZ, which kicks off later Saturday night.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Kenneth Taylor (Ajax)
Check out the match summary with Flashscore.
