Coach of Leicester City Claudio Ranieri has praised the performance of Nigeria defender cum midfielder Wilfred Ndidi for his performance despite their 0-3 loss to Chelsea.

Ndidi was handed his Premier League debut by the manager who signed him for £15 million from Belgian side Genk, after introducing him to English football in the FA Cup tie against Everton.

The Nigerian lasted the entire duration of the game but couldn’t stop his side from suffering a devastating loss to the league leaders Chelsea.

” Am happy with Ndidi, he showed us his other side today, playing in midfield and later in central defence. He did well in both areas”, Ranieri told Premier League TV.

” He (Ndidi) did well but not very well just like everybody didn’t play to their potential against Chelsea. We failed to take control of the game and we were punished”.

Manager of Arsenal Arsene Wenger has once again ruled out dropping forward Alex Iwobi from the starting line up, claiming the youngster has come off age by adding goals to his game.
Despite calls to the contrary from supporters of the team, the Nigeria international has retained his spot in the starting line up for Arsenal ahead of some established stars like Alex Oxlade Chamberlain and new signing Lucas Perez.
Iwobi forced Jack Cork and Kyle Naughton into scoring own goals in Arsenal’s 4-0 win over Swansea City and his manager believes his quality in the box lead to the own goals scored by the defenders.

“Alex Iwobi has started to score goals and that is a good sign for us.

“Overall, I am convinced that when you are always in the box (and) when you force your opponents to dive at your shots, sometimes it goes for you and sometimes not.

“Today (on Saturday), it went for us,” Wenger told Premier League TV after the game at the Liberty Stadium.

Iwobi has scored twice in 17 Premier League appearances for Arsenal this season.

Arsenal recorded a routine 4-0 win against Swansea with one player in particular standing out.

But something else happened in this 4-0 win at the Liberty Stadium, or rather, something else continued to happen. Arsenal scored four goals and one player was involved in three of them. One player who has gone and continues to go under the radar: Alex Iwobi.

On a night when Olivier Giroud scored a tap-in to take his form to five goals in his last five games, and Alexis Sánchez pounced to slap home the fourth and move joint-top of the Premier League golden boot standings with 14 league goals, and Mesut Özil’s made his return from illness, it was the young Nigerian who was at the heart of everything.

Played ostensibly as a No.10 but in reality part of a fluid trio of players behind Giroud as a striker, Iwobi was busy from the first whistle to the last. He moved and darted between Swansea players as though they weren’t even there.
And obviously Swansea aren’t very good – they’re second from bottom in the league for a reason, but Iwobi made them look genuinely terrible. He sliced and diced with ease, continuing what is now becoming an established pattern of play.

His rise into the first team at Arsenal has been lost among the hype of Marcus Rashford, Kelechi Iheanacho and Anthony Martial. And true enough, his has been a less spectacular emergence than those players, but it has been no less impressive.
Coming into an attacking midfield unit that includes bonafide world-class stars like Alexis and Mesut Özil and not only looking confident enough to not turn into a timid sideways passing machine, but dribbling, surging forward and scoring goals? That is incredible.

This afternoon against Swansea, Iwobi was fantastic. His vision was a key part of the long passing sequence that Arsenal strung together before Olivier Giroud slammed home the opening goal. With a brilliant pass completion of 89% despite being a dribbling attacker.

In the second half, however, he really went to work. Arsenal were struggling to put the Swans away despite an obvious dominance. 0-1 is a tricky score, especially away from home. But Iwobi made sure Arsenal had nothing to fear. Finding himself in a wide position on the right, the Nigerian quickly capitalised on a bobbling ball to rifle it at goal.

The ball struck Jack Cork and ballooned over the hapless Lukas Fabianski. A lucky deflection? Sure. But Iwobi’s run was intelligent, staying wide and onside, and his shot was decisive. He didn’t ponder, he hit it hard and low across the face of goal. He made his own luck.

The third goal was again all down to him. Picking the ball up on the left this time, he advanced into the box and squared up to Federico Fernandez. What followed was a couple of stepovers, keeping the Argentine defender at bay, and then blowing by him enough to get half an inch of space.

He then fired the ball across goal with his left, where Kyle Naughton deflected it into his own goal. Again, another own goal, but again it was Iwobi’s sense of purpose that made the difference. His more lauded team-mates were dawdling, but he was decisive.
But Iwobi wasn’t done. Coming in off the left flank, Iwobi was being marked tightly by Naughton who apparently hadn’t had enough humiliation for one day. Iwobi shrugged Naughton off like he was a needy fan trying to grab hold of his jersey as he runs through the mixed-zone.

He then picked a gorgeous pass, threading it in behind Fernandez and allowing Oxlade-Chamberlain to run onto it. He crossed and the ball eventually found its way to Alexis who finished comfortably (and sulked mightily when he was taken off).

4-0. A much needed routine win. After the Bournemouth debacle this was the perfect tonic for Arsenal. The Gunners got back in the saddle and it was all down to the unheralded brilliance of their young Nigerian superstar in the making.

Iwobi was immense, being part of the first goal from the centre, creating the second goal from the right, the third and fourth from the left. Versatility, creativity and above all else: a decisive will to win. Iwobi is under the radar but his quality is bursting over the top.

*Culled from Squakwa

Much have been said about the qualities and abilities of Super Eagles central midfielder Oghenekaro Etebo, but base on fact and form it’s fair to say that on current form he isn’t the best Nigerian player in the Portuguese league.

Although he has been ever present for CD Feirense and reports indicate that he has been watched severally by scouts of top European sides, Mikel Agu is one player whose performances for Vitoria Setubal has gone unnoticed by the media in Nigeria.

After years of not going beyond the potential level, the FC Porto loanee is slowly showing the reason why Porto refused to release him despite his countless battles with injuries, fitness and poor form.

So far the defensive midfielder has made the team of the week in Portugal three times while Etebo is yet to be considered. Last night while Etebo was substituted in Feirense 0-0 draw against Vitoria da Guimaraes , Agu lasted the entire duration of his team 1-0 win over Nacional.

The 23 year old has made 14 appearances this summer, which makes it bewildering that he is not been considered for a call up to the national team while players with inferior statistic and in a lesser league are tipped for a call up to the Super Eagles.

Coach of the Super Eagles Gernot Rohr is known as a coach who rewards players with national team call up base on their club form. That said it’s now a matter of when not if Agu will be called up but he has to maintain his current form or even improve on it to further stake his claims.

Former coach of the Super Eagles Sunday Oliseh had a club managerial debut to remember after helping Dutch side Fortuna Sittard halt a winless run with a 1-0 win away to Achilles ’29.

Oliseh was appointed as coach by the struggling Dutch second division side one months ago, with a clear mandate to save the club from relegation to the third division.

He started the task on a sound footing yesterday with a big away win thanks to a 58 minutes strike from Gavin Vlijter, and the win move them up to 17th on the 20 team table.

The victory was their first since the 14th of October 2016 when they defeated league leaders VVV Venlo 2-0, the win was also their first away win of the season after 20 games.

Since the start of the league Fortuna Sittard have only won six games, a poor run which put them in the drop zone of the second division in Holland.

On loan Arsenal Nigerian teen midfielder Kelechi Nwakali picked up another man of the match award after playing a strong role in helping MVV Maastricht beat Helmond Sport 2-0.

The man of the match award is the second the 18 year old is picking up in his last four games for the promotion chasing second division side.

Nwakali pulled the string for MVV Maastricht in the midfield with a commanding display, and capped it up with an amazing assist for the second goal scored by MVV Maastricht.
Maastricht second goal was created by the on loan midfielder who set up goal scorer Joeri Schroyen after a fantastic individual action, that saw him went past his markers with ease before setting up the goal.

He gave two more of such balls to the forward but they failed to hit the target despite Nwakali doing most of the hard job in the build up to the goal mouth action.

Former Nigeria U-20 trainee Michael Uche Derima has moved as a free agent to Spanish Segunda 2 side Athletico Baleares on a short term deal till the end of the season.

Derima represented UE Cornella last season but left the team following the expiration of his contract at the end of the 2015/2016 season.

He has in the past defended the colours of Mallorca, where he spent three seasons and progressed through the ranks from the Juvenile team but never made it to the main team.

25 year old Derima is confident as a central midfielder but can also play as a defensive midfielder or as a centre back made 15 appearances for Cornella last season, with a further three coming in the Copa Del Rey.