It was not the best of start to life in the Premier League for Taiwo Awoniyi and Joe Aribo, as their clubs Nottingham Forest and Southampton lost their first games of the new season.
While newly promoted Nottingham Forest lost 2-0 away to Newcastle United, Southampton were hammered 4-1 at Tottenham Hotspur.
Awoniyi was introduced in the 63rd minute with the score at 1-0 but could help get his side back in the game.
On his part, Aribo saw action for 90 minutes for the Saints.
After a goalless first half, Awoniyi’s Nottingham Forest conceded in the 58th minute as Fabian Schar moved forward and unleashed a powerful shot into the top corner.
With 12 minutes left, Newcastle doubled their lead thanks to Callum Wilson with a classy clipped finish.
Aribo and Southampton got off to a positive start as James Ward-Prowse opened scoring in 12 minutes as his strike flew past Hugo Lloris.
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In the 21st minute Ryan Sessegnon scored his first goal for Spurs, nodding home from a delightful Dejan Kulusevski cross.
Ten minutes later Spurs went 2-1 ahead when Eric Dier diverted a Son Heung-min cross into the far corner.
Spurs then went 3-1 up on 61 minutes following an own goal by Ghana’s Mohammed Salisu who turned Emerson Royal’s cross into his own net.
And in the 63rd minute Spurs got their fourth goal as Royal cut back to Dejan Kulusevski and the Swede guide his effort in to the far corner.
In other results, Bournemouth beat Aston Villa 2-0 and Leeds United edged Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1.
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COMMENTS
Oh Awoniyi, not even a starter as a record signing. These Nigerians are making dumb career moves just to play in the premier league. All because England used to own Nigeria, so they feel comfortable since it’s an easy adaptation of having a big Nigerian community and or to speak english.
From a europa league team to a team that might fight relegation. All because your girl wants to be in the UK. Union Berlin is not gonna miss him, Jordan Pefock scoring so far. This is a hazard for the national team. Players who were playing regularly, getting experience and or playing in uefa competition outside of the premier league leaving to go to the premier league not going to adapt like Ekong, not playing regularly and or getting relegated like Dennis. All the talks of Dennis going to this and that team, but he staying put lmao. With club brugge he was in champions league. I know its early. Bassey is probably the only person who moved up on the national team. All these other players going to the english league just to be relegated or lower tier team when they were playing in uefa competition.
Standards are low. Its different playing on a lower tier team and getting promoted and or being recognised while playing for a lower team like Apkovie, Aribo and etc. Awoniyi is married young and has a child too. His wife’s opinion on where they should reside took part in the decision. Anybody can play on a football team and get paid, but who is actually gonna win trophies/medals. His move don’t seem to be ambitious, just an easy and lazy option. I mean he didn’t get his paperwork ready to even play for liverpool. Are majority of the se players gonna be lower tier players or players who don’t play regularly?
Too much ranting for their first premier league game…Seems you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to just criticize the moves these players made.. At the end of the day it’s their choice and not yours.
Relax it’s just 1st match it’s very hasty to conclude like that, just the first match take it easy na
Since you have been watching football, you are not aware that teams don’t rush newly signed players into matches. I think you need to understand that
Exactly u are right
You left a PLACE where you were feeling like KING to a PLACE where they will CHOKE you with their BURDEN for SURVIVAL…
OKAY o..
WELCOME to the PREMIER LEAGUE..
E just dey START
@ Monkey Post, we human beings are bound to make wrong decisions when you bowed to societal and family pressure. A case study of Taiwo Awoniyi
I TELL you my BROTHER
Premier league pay these guys 3, 4 times what they were earning in their previous clubs. It’s hard to turn down.
Congratulations awoniyi. It’s your life and decision. What about the ones that have truned out good. People can blame anything Sha. It’s early days.
It is early days yet. Nothing to regret getting to play weekly in the toughest league in the world, the EPL.
Goodluck Awoniyi.
Nigerians are haters sha no be Awaziem who most touted to take over the defence dey play for Croatia now….Ahn ahn even the English championship is still harder and more accepted than the Scottish league….Apart from Celtic and Rangers what household name do most of you know in Scottish football…
When you’re the successful part of a winning team, it is easy to think that you’re the one carrying the team and ignore how your teammates have familiarised themselves with playing you into goal-scoring opportunities.
Moving to another club brings with it issues like the quality of the new club’s players, their familiarity with your playing style, and dressing room politics.
A team with poor quality players would make even Mohammad Sallah get frustrated and look mediocre. For example, when Aubamayang plays for Gabon is any African team afraid of him? In fact, at the club level, such poor-quality players find it harder to adjust to new players and resent new better quality players.
While a team with high-quality players not only welcomes quality additions but also has better training regimes and can turn a good striker into a superstar.
Nigerian players rushing to play in mediocre premier league teams will find that it is the graveyard for their careers. Poor quality teams are bad luck for players’ careers. As indeed has happened to all those Watford players – most of them had successful careers elsewhere in Europe before joining, but now find no quality team interested in them.
Osimhen is lucky, he almost made the mistake of joining a mediocre premiership team like Newcastle when Napoli have a better international reputation. Look at Koulibaly, he left Napoli for Chelsea. Quality attracts quality!
@TRISTAN I WISH I can give you ONE BILLION THUMPS UP for this your COMMENT
@ Tristan, you said it all – I pray Nottingham Forest survives premiership at the end of the season.
LEAGUE just dey START, LEAGUE just dey START..
Hmmmm… Na from MESS Dem dey take know how SMELL of SH*T go be o!!
@ Monkey Post, your comments dey kill me – what planet you come from? Lol
Lol. JUPITER..
It is painful Sha,league just started trully, but I watch aribo game today,the poor boy wasn’t in the game at all.
I pray things get better as season progress otherwise,
these boys might have themselves to be blamed.
But my prayer is for that not to happen because it is going to affect se one way or the other
Tough start to the premier league for JOE SHMO ARIBO.
First game of the new season ends in wotowoto.
Yinkus said he wasn’t in the game today. I agree. At times, it didn’t even look like he was in the stadium. The only contribution I saw from him was one shot at goal in the 2nd half. To be fair to him, he got very little support or service all day. It looked like his colleagues were just not on the same wavelength with him. Hopefully, things will improve with more games.
On a side note, imagine Tottenham scoring 4 goals in a game, without a goal from Kane and/or Son.
As rare as a blue moon.
The English leagues went full swing this weekend with Nigeria fans passionately following the progress of all Nigerian players in the various tiers of the leagues. So, how did our heroes fares? I take a look at 6 of these below:
1) Taiwo Awoniyi: I think of players like Alexander Mitrovic of Fulham and our own Seyi Olofijana. Mitrovic is currently have an illustrious career at Fulham since 2018 despite the club coming in and out of the Premier league at that time (3 seasons in the Champions and 3 seasons in the Premier League). Despite these movements, Mitrovic’s career has been stable, steady and productive and he is seen as dangerous goals scorer in English football (yesterday the Serbian International drew a foul and score the resultant penalty against powerhouse Liverpool in their latest season back in the Premier League).
Our own Seyi Olofijana had a stellar and steady career at Wolves, Stoke City Hull City between 2004 and 2013 as he moved graciously between the Premier League and the Championship. He acquitted himself everywhere he went and is still held in high esteem by the fans of those clubs.
Neither Mitrovic nor Olofijana regretted their career moves that saw them grace England’s top two leagues. They are legends. Sola Ameobi – who enjoyed a steady, fruitful and long career with Newcastle across the Premier League and Championship – comes to mind.
There is nothing to suggest that Taiwo Awoniyi will not be huge hit in England – be it in the English Premier League or temporary spells in the Championship.
Yesterday he was brought up against a pumped up Newcastle United but he and his teammates could not contain the rampant Magpies.
It is going to be a long season so Awoniyi will definitely have his time to shine but yesterday wasn’t not the day for him and his team mates.
2) Joe Aribo: he was initially deployed as a support striker and then later as lone centre forward. With the frenetic pace of the Premier League and limited service midfield, Aribo was isolated. He still showed glimpses of what he brings by ghosting into the penalty box and drawing a save from the goalkeeper.
In fairness, it does take time for some players to settle into life in a new league.
Aribo will relish the challenge ahead as he carves out a niche for himself as a quality centre forward. My question is: if he continues to be used as a centre forward in Southampton, what will happen to his midfield role in the Super Eagles?
Even yesterday, Aribo’s positioning provided the perception that he could be a huge star for Southampton this season, regardless of where the club ends.
3) Alex Iwobi: although Everton lost to Chelsea, Iwobi put in a strong shift in midfield. His signature neat first touches and one time passes were again in full view. He also seems to be enjoying his football again.
Fans and foes alike will be look to Iwobi to see how he will build on the strong way he ended last season.
4) Peter Etebo: he was unsurprisingly missing in Stoke’s match day squad. Just like Mitrovic, Ameobi and Olofijana, Etebo was hoping to have a steady career in English football across Premiership and Championship but it sadly hasn’t really worked out.
There was no problem signing for Stoke City in 2018, the question was how his career would pan out. Funnily, Etebo is still held in high esteem by Stoke fans for his exemplary work ethics.
He also enjoyed a purple patch under sacked coach Nathan Jones whose diamond shape 4-4-2 brought out the best in Etebo (he actually scored his only 2 goals for Stoke under Nathan Jones’ diamond 4-4-2 formation : check video below)
So, Etebo’s move to Stoke in itself wasn’t a bad move. But after Jones was sacked, current manager Michael O’Neil took a disliking to Etebo hence his career at the club derailed. Loan deals to Getafe, Galastasaray and Watford only goes to show that Michael O’Neil and Etebo have no intentions of working with each other. This reversal of fortune could have happened to any player at any club. What has to be remembered is that, under affable coaches, Peter Etebo was having a decent, steady career in English football.
5) Joshua Oluwayemi: the 21 year old goal-minder is still waiting for his breakthrough as league One Portsmouth. He was on the bench throughout against Lincoln City. It has to be recalled that Maduka Okoye was not listed for Watford in the Championship curtain raiser against Sheffield on Monday. Another Nigeria goalkeeper Daniel Jinadu is currently listed as clubless of Transfermk – not the best of starts for Nigerian goalkeepers in England.
6) However, Nigeria eligible Arthur Okonkwo bucked that trend as Arsenal loanee kept a clean sheet for Crew Alexander’s 3:0 League Two win against Harrogate.
Etebo’s goal against Forest (under a friendly coach):
https://youtu.be/hShV58uf1PY
Etebo’s goal against Blackburn (under a friendly coach):
https://youtu.be/VKcK27d8dTA