Never before has the Premier League season been so dominated by African players as we head towards the second weekend after the biggest-spending, most-hyped pre-season on record. Prepare for more.
It doesn’t matter where you look this weekend. Everton go to Reading with South Africa’s Steven Pienaar ready to impress again and 19-year-old Nigerian Victor Anichebe is ready to score again after the lad from Lagos’s goal in the 2-1 win against Wigan Athletic last week.
Reading held champions Manchester United last week, but can they resist the new African duo at the Madejski?
Pienaar has signed a year-long loan deal from Borussia Dortmund and, at 25, he is being hailed as a real talent after his late cameo performance against Wigan. After overcoming initial work-permit problems, manager David Moyes says of Pienaar: ”I’m delighted with him. We haven’t seen enough of him yet, but we will.”
Last Saturday, the first day of action was dominated by dramatic pictures of Blackburn Rovers’s South African striker, Benni McCarthy, last season’s second-top scorer in the Premiership, staggering after taking a blow to the head when clashing with two Middlesbrough defenders in a 2-1 win.
His Ewood Park boss, Mark Hughes, lamented the injury, but said with relief that the Cape Town-born star was ”going to be okay”, even before McCarthy was discharged from hospital and pronounced out of danger.
This Sunday the Rovers have got the great Gunners to deal with — an Arsenal armed with their own African stars, such as Côte d’Ivoire heroes Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue and, probably, Togo’s Nigerian-sired Emmanuel Adebayore. McCarthy is rated doubtful, while his Bafana Bafana teammate Aaron Mokoena came on only as a last-minute sub against Boro.
Nigerian striker Obafemi Martins produced a spectacular overhead kick for Newcastle United in their 3-1 win at Bolton Wanderers.
He scored a deflected second at the Reebok and perhaps new boss Sam Allardyce’s original misgivings were a little premature. The pubs of England were alive with talk of the Martins goal, which came with his back towards goal before a perfect back flick saw his overhead effort nestle in the net to make it 2-0 after 21 minutes.
This week Newcastle take on Aston Villa at St James’s Park.
Down at Portsmouth African duo Benjani Mwaruwari and John Utaka both scored in the 2-2 draw with Derby County on day one. Zimbabwe’s Benjani struck first, then debutant Utaka from Nigeria added a second and Pompey were only just denied an opening-day win by a late Derby equaliser.
This week Harry Redknapp’s side should be too much for little Sammy Lee’s Bolton at Fratton Park.
And then, of course, there’s Ghana’s unbelievable Michael Essien. He started Sunday’s opening game against Birmingham City with ankle problems, but had a storming match, scoring the winner in a 3-2 televised thriller in the 50th minute before twisting his knee in the 69th minute and hobbling off.
This week he will limp back into the action against Liverpool on Sunday in the weekend’s big clash. With Claude Makalele, Didier Drogba, Jon Obi Mikel, Salomon Kalou and the rest also in contention, it’s going to be another big weekend for Africa.