Leicester City midfielder, Kelechi Iheanacho has received a rain of accolades from ex-Liverpool striker, Michael Owen, who says he was amazed with the Super Eagles’ star’s goal of the weekend and a penalty won for his side in the English Premier League.
Iheanacho reacted smartly and in foxy style to knock home his third goal of the season, thereby helping Leicester return from the previous fixture’s 4-0 loss at home against Liverpool to get an away win of their own, but it is the Nigerian lad’s goal that totally awed Owen.
It was further confirmation of the return to relevance by Iheanacho, who had been picked ahead of EPL top scorer, Jamie Vardy for Saturday’s game away to West Ham United, and the former Columbus Crew of America and Manchester City of England youngster made the best of the rare opportunity.
Vardy was excluded from the game because his wife had a child the day before, thereby giving room to Iheanacho, who previously started two Premier League matches against Aston Villa and Norwich City.
Iheanacho then struck during the first half of Leicester’s 2-1 win at London Stadium on Saturday, taking his overall haul to five goals and two assists in six appearances across all competitions this term, one more than he garnered from 35 games in the 2018/19 campaign.
Ayoze Perez created the goal for Iheanacho, who header from close range gave The Foxes the lead after 39 minutes, and Owen admitted he was impressed by the back-to-form Nigerian lad’s run off the ball in the build-up to the goal.
There was some early drama involving West Ham’s goalkeeper, Lukasz Fabianski and Iheanacho, as the shot-stopper bundle the Eagles’ revived lad over, only to avoid a red card because the foul was committed inside the box.
In the course of his analysis of the game, Owen said he was in agreement with a penalty call by the match referee, David Coote; as the back-to-form attacking midfielder played all 90 minutes of an EPL game for the first time since December 5, 2018.
Owen said: “Iheanacho did great, he’s played in between the two center halves there and then naturally you’d let the ball drop and hit it.
“Because he had awareness, he saw goalkeeper Fabianski coming off his line and he just nicked it before him, it was really good play.
“Leicester recycled the ball, keep the ball in play just as well. Perez’s header remains in play. There is a quick reaction from Iheanacho and it’s a good goal from him.”
