Enyeama heads for record books

Nigeria and Lille goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama will enter the record books if he can keep a clean sheet for just the first four minutes of his side’s match against Marseille on Tuesday.

The Nigeria number one goalkeeper kept his 10th clean sheet in a row for the Ligue 1 side as they stayed second in the table thanks to a 1-0 win over Valenciennes on Saturday.

The 31-year-old has kept a remarkable 13 clean sheets in 15 matches so far this season, and needs only not to concede for the first four minutes of the match against Marseille to break the record of 948 minutes without conceding a goal.

Interestingly, that record was set only a year ago, by Paris Saint-Germain keeper Salvatore Sirigu between November 17 2012 and February 8 2013.

But it could now be broken, with Enyeama having not conceded a goal for 945 minutes, since a 2-0 home defeat by Nice on September 15.

But despite the record chase, the player has been modest with his remarks on his current form.

“I don’t count the minutes and I don’t let all the counting get into my head. My duty is to see that my team wins the game at stake,” Enyeama said last week after being named player of the month for the French league.

Enyeama was on Arsenal’s radar during the summer and in the early weeks of the season, with Gunners manager Arsene Wenger looking to bring in an understudy for Wojciech Szczesny, although Wenger has since appeared to cool his interest.

And across to the English Premier League, it was different tales for the two Nigerian stars that played on Sunday. Mikel Obi who was an 84th minute substitute for Fernando Torres in Chelsea team smiled home as the Stamford Bridge team stayed unbeaten at home. Chelsea came from behind to defeat Southampton 3-1. The visitors had taken the lead as for the third time this season in the top flight a goal went in after 13 seconds with Jay Rodriguez taking advantage of a Michael Essien error to give Southampton a shock lead. Gary Cahill equalized on 55 minutes after John Terry’s header had been diverted against the post. And then seven minutes later Terry celebrated his 400th Premier League appearance with a towering header before striker Demba Ba rounded off the victory with a late third.

The result means Jose Mourinho remains unbeaten at home as a manager at Stamford Bridge.

Victor Moses wasn’t as lucky. Liverpool were beaten 3-1 by Hull City. The Nigeria, though, had a good shot at goal which was saved by the goalkeeper.

PUNCH NG