Izuchukwu OkosiSuper Eagles players and others of Nigerian heritage are expected to be in action this weekend for their clubs in the English Premier League.
Prime Business Africa presents a preview of the games involving the players under review.
Super Eagles midfielder Wilfred Ndidi will likely miss Leicester City’s midday kickoff in the Premier League against Manchester City on Saturday barely 72 hours after returning to light training for the Foxes.
The Nigerian copped a hamstring injury while on international duty back in September ahead of the friendly against Algeria.
“Wilf’s back on the training pitches as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury,” Leicester City confirmed Wednesday on their Facebook and Instagram social media accounts as they gave an update on their injured players.
“Wilfred Ndidi will probably be out for a little bit. He came back from international duty with a hamstring strain. He recovered well but he felt it at half-time in the game and he was a little sore, so he might miss a few weeks.
“We think he’ll be okay. He came out of the international break with that, so we just needed to protect him,” the injury update further clarified.
Ricardo Pereira and Ryan Bertrand continue to miss out for Leicester as well but Jonny Evans who did not feature against Wolverhampton could be in the squad ahead of their game against Manchester City.
Meanwhile veteran striker Jamie Vardy who scored last time out off the bench could start on Saturday with Kelechi Iheanacho expected to make an impact coming on from the substitute bench.
The Foxes have won two of their last three matches keeping clean sheets in four of their last five games in the topflight.
After 12 matches, Leicester are 17th on the log with 11 points after winning just two and drawing five matches
The Emirates Stadium will witness the game between Arsenal and Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon with the Gunners hard pressed to get back to winning ways after their 1-1 draw with Southampton in their last league match and the 3-0 defeat to PSV in Matchday 5 of the Europa League Thursday evening.
“You can see why they [Arsenal] are where they are,” said Cooper. “A really tough game, As tough as it gets at the moment, top of the league away from home.”
Speaking on the 1-0 win against Liverpool who like Arsenal are expected to finish in the European places, Cooper charged his team to remain focused as they need to win more difficult games.
Nigeria’s Taiwo Awoniyi scored the winning goal in the slim win over his former team albeit he never played a single game for them after embarking on several loan moves.
“We will get judged over the course of time. It was a great win. We are still bottom. We still haven’t got enough points or less than we would have liked. Let’s not lose sight of that. I don’t want to sound negative. That’s the realism, when you’re in a situation like that you have to fight.”
Cooper may opt for Awoniyi yet again against Mikel Arteta’s team or decide to bring his compatriot Emmanuel Dennis to the starting lineup for Sunday’s match.
Dennis has scored just one league goal this season in seven league matches while Awoniyi has three goals in 11 league appearances to his credit.
Super Eagles midfielder Alex Iwobi has five assists to his credit and is joint assist maker in the league with Bernardo Silva on five each behind Kevin De Bruyne who has nine.
Iwobi has been an integral part of a renaissance at Everton since manager Frank Lampard moved him to central midfield from wide areas.
The nephew to Nigerian football legend Austin Jay Jay Okocha is set to continue with his starting place in the Toffees lineup this weekend.
Everton have not won in 21 of their last 23 away matches but Iwobi’s form for the Merseysiders could help stem that abysmal form.
Iwobi would hope to reenact his brilliant form against Crystal Palace last weekend where Everton returned to winning ways in the league in that 3-0 win – a game that Nigeria-eligible stars Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise performed commmedably but ultimatelywere not able to lift the Eagles.
Talking about Palace, they will host Southampton who are currently unbeaten in their last three games, collecting five points from a possible nine, the last being the 1-1 draw with Arsenal last Sunday.
Eberechi Eze whom many Nigerians will hope eelcts to eventually play for the Super Eagles over the Three Lions of England is, expected to pull the strings from central midfield – alongside fellow Nigerian by blood star – Michael Olise who is eligible to represent Algeria or France at the senior level.
The Saints are expected to feature Super Eagles midfielder Joe Aribo from the left side of the pack in a 4-4-2 formation.
Frank Onyeka will be seeking his 10th Premier League appearance Saturday afternoon when 11th placed Brentford welcome Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Onyeka has been given the license to drift forward a lot in recent games by manager Thomas Frank but whether that will be the case on Saturday remains to be seen as the Bees aim to recover from the 4-0 bashing of Aston Villa last weekend.
Bournemouth occupying the 14th position in the Premier League table are likely to field the duo of Dominic Solanke (England) and Philip Billing (Denmark) who are born of Nigerian parents when they host floundering Tottenham Hotspur at the Vitality Stadium.
Carney Chukwuemeka may be named among the substitutes when Chelsea visit Brighton.
The midfielder born of Nigerian parents but also eligible to play for Austria was in action for 11 minutes in last weekend’s 1-1 draw against Manchester United.
Last season he played 12 times in the league for former club Aston Villa with an assist to his credit.
Izuchukwu Michael
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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