African Players Dominate Game Week 1

Finally, its back. After 77 days away, the Premier League returned and if the opening day is any indication, we’re in for a real treat this year, with 11 goals having been scored by African Players.

And it seems that the players were awaiting the new season with as much zeal as fans back from home.

Riyad Mahrez - Algeria/Leicester

 

Clearly, this season is set to be a defining one for Mahrez and he started in impressive fashion. The Algerian is the first player to gain a perfect Whoscored rating of 10 in the Premier League this term as he carved open the Sunderland defence with ease during his 77 minutes on the pitch. The 24-year-old netted a first half brace and could have added a third after the interval having struck the woodwork 10 minutes after the restart. 
Meanwhile, 4 key passes denotes just how effective a creative force the Algeria international was during the comprehensive victory over Sunderland. Furthermore, 2 goals from his 6 shots on goal denoted a level of confidence in the player to not only beat his man, but chance his luck at goal when the opportunity presented itself.


Andre Ayew – Ghana/Swansea

Not many people would have envisaged the Champions slipping up in their first home game of the season, but Swansea were good value for their point and on another day could have taken all three.
Central to their success was Ghanaian forward Ayew, who took his goal superbly in the first half and linked up well with Bafetimbi Gomis all afternoon. Intelligent on the ball and able to influence proceedings from all areas in the final third, Ayew could well help Garry Monk’s side step up another gear this campaign.

Cheikhou Kouyate - Senegal/ West Ham 

West Ham turned up, armed with an ambitious new manager and a team rippling with the sort of strength, athletic presence and set-piece menace usually associated with their old boss.

Cheikhou Kouyate opened the scoring with a header from a free-kick just before half-time, a goal which wrenched the game from its predictable rhythms of heavy periods of Arsenal possession and wasted chances.

Yaya Toure - Ivory Coast/ Manchester City

Toure cut a troubled figure at times last season and the damaging machinations of his agent have hardly helped his standing at the club — but here was a wonderful return to form for a player who is close to unstoppable on his best days. Manchester City were dominant from the get-go here, but it was Toure’s drive and ambitious eye for goal that had the game won inside 24 minutes.

At the heart of it all was Toure. The first goal probably belonged to Silva — and if it does not right now, the Dubious Goals Panel should right that wrong — but Toure’s thrust made it possible. 

Pappis Cisse - Senegal/ Newcastle

Papiss Cisse has vowed to fight for his future at Newcastle.

The Senegal star is under pressure at the start of Steve McClaren's reign after the club signed Aleksandar Mitrovic and are interested in QPR's Charlie Austin.

But Cisse hit back with a goal against Southampton, and says he will remain “professional” as clubs from Turkey and the Middle East eye up a £8million bid.

Cisse said: “I have a contract at Newcastle United. I need to be professional every time I play. I don’t have a team to leave to.

“I am a Newcastle player. I try to work hard in every game I get.” 

Arouna Kone - Ivory Coast/ Everton

Roberto Martinez believes Arouna Kone’s game-saving cameo against Watford could prove the turning point of his Everton career.

Kone stepped off the bench to play a part in Ross Barkley’s first equaliser before netting his first Goodison goal to earn a 2-2 draw against the newly-promoted Hornets.

The Ivorian has suffered from poor form and long-term injuries since following Martinez from Wigan Athletic to the Blues two years ago.

Odion Ighalo - Nigeria/ Watford

It feels almost as though, out of nowhere, a new Nigerian striking star has been born.

Forget Peter Odemwingie, Victor Anichebe, Ideye Brown and even, dare I say it, Victor Moses; when the Premier League scorecast comes through on a Saturday afternoon, all eyes will be searching for the name ‘Ighalo’.

Without wanting to get too ahead of myself, could the forward’s coming of age—for it is a coming of age rather than an emergence—in the Premier League finally end the mourning associated with the unhappy deterioration of Emmanuel Emenike?

Obviously, one swallow does not a summer make, but Ighalo demonstrated, against Everton in Watford’s EPL opener, that he will be a handful for top-flight defences this season. Expect one or two goals along the way!




 Rudy Gestede - Benin/ Aston Villa

Some teams can collapse when they lose their best player and there is a real danger that the same thing could happen to Aston Villa, now that Christian Benteke, who has done more than anyone else to keep them in the Premier League over recent years, plays for Liverpool.
There is pressure, then, on Rudy Gestede to match as much of Benteke’s old work as he possibly can, even though he arrived at Villa Park for roughly one fifth of the money that they received for his predecessor. All Gestede can do is score goals that win games and that is precisely what he did with 18 minutes left on Saturday, when Villa were struggling to break down Bournemouth.

 
Rudy Gestede scored the only goal in Aston Villa’s 1-0 victory over promoted Bournemouth  
Gestede had replaced Jordan Ayew, younger brother of Swansea’s André, just 13 minutes before, but when Ashley Westwood put a free-kick into the Bournemouth box, Gestede galloped on to it and produced the sort of emphatic header Benteke likes to score. “He is like a moving car,” said the Villa manager, Tim Sherwood, afterwards. “He really throws his body at it. He is brave as a lion but he is more than a battering ram.”