Arsenal of England youngster, Folarin Balogun played as a second half substitute in The Gunners’ loss at home to London rivals, Chelsea in the English Premier League, megasportsarena.com reports.
While Arthur Okonkwo was not dressed by the home side and Faustino Anjorin was also missing in The Blues’ squad, Balogun served up the only Nigerian presence in the feisty London derby that Chelsea won 2-0 at Emirates Stadium.
The result means Arsenal will have to recover from a very disastrous start to the season, as they suffered a second consecutive loss in the new season, with Sunday’s defeat coming just nine days after the fell to Brentford on the opening day.
This time out, The Gunners fell 2-0 in their London derby at Emirates Stadium, with Chelsea’s biggest summer signing and returnee striker, Romelu Lukaku on the scorecard alongside Reece James in the first half.
Arsenal’s third choice goalkeeper, Okonkwo and Chelsea’s youth team striker, Anjorin were both left out of the opposing squads, while Balogun got off The Gunners’ bench to replace Gabriel Martinelli with eleven minutes left on the clock.
Before then, Chelsea broke the deadlock when James crossed low for the onrushing Lukaku to tap home in the fifteenth minute.
Ten minutes before half-time, James finished off a great team move to double the advantage, the wing-back blasted a shot into the top far corner after he was picked out by Mason Mount.
Chelsea kept Arsenal at arm’s length in the second half apart from a deflected Bukayo Saka shot saved by goalkeeper Mendy for a corner.
Also in England on Sunday, Shola Shoretire was not dressed by Manchester United, as The Red Devils stormed from behind to register a 1-1 draw with Southampton, who did not dress Nathan Tells for the game at St. Mary’s Stadium.
Tella watched proceedings from the bench for the entirety of ninety minutes while Shoretire was not selected in the matchday 20 after going the distance for the U23s in a Premier League 2 clash with Chelsea on Friday night.
In Turkey, Chuks Akabueze opened his account for the season and helped Bandirmaspor defeat Menemenspor 1-0 on game week two in the Turkish First League, as he headed in the winning goal six minutes from time on his home debut.
In Sweden, Samuel Adegbenro netted a consolation as IFK Norrkoeping suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Halmstads BK in a Swedish Allsvenskan clash at Oerjans Vall, as the former Rosenborg star’s 77th minute strike halved the deficit and took his tally to 11 goals in 20 games.
In Norway, Moses Ebiye netted for Tromso and ensured they got a share of the spoils from their Norwegian Eliteserien clash away to Sandefjord.
In the game at Sandefjord Arena, the home team’s lead lasted only five minutes as Ebiye restored parity in the 17th minute – his third goal involvement in his last four games in the division.
