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Nigeria's Kelechi Iheanacho of Manchester City and Odion Ighalo, playing for Watford, each scored in yesterday’s Premiership league fixtures, recording victories for their teams in the process.

Iheanacho maintained Manchester City’s 100 per cent start to the season with a late winner over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park – and moved Manuel Pellegrini’s men 11 points clear of ailing Chelsea.

The player had been on song since 2013 during the under-17 world cup where he won the Golden Boot. He had also been on song for his new club, Manchester City, especially in the junior team. He showed fans what he is capable of during series of friendlies he featured in for the club. He had been waiting and bidding his time for an opportunity to prove himself on the field of play for Manchester City. He never made mistakes to register his name on the scorers' chat when the opportunity came yesterday.

It would be recalled that the Nigerian star player refused to be shipped off to another club at the start of the seasons when other young players deemed not needed by the club for the season were all sent to other clubs to horn their experiences. He believed he could fight for shirt in the club and it would seem his believe in himself is paying off.

The Nigerian substitute had been on the field less than a minute when he fired home in the first minute of injury time after following up when Palace keeper Alex McCarthy spilled an initial effort from Samir Nasri.

Ighalo’s second-half strike earned 10-man Watford their first Premier League victory of the season at the expense of in-form Swansea.

The Nigeria forward pounced on a headed knockdown from Troy Deeney to fire in from eight yards and score the club’s first goal at home this campaign.

Watford were reduced to 10 men when Valon Behrami was sent off after appearing to stamp on Andre Ayew.

Arsenal took advantage of Palace’s late loss to move up to second in the table but the Gunners were afflicted by familiar problems in front of goal as they ground out a 2-0 win over Stoke at the Emirates Stadium.

The hosts missed a series of first-half chances with Stoke keeper Jack Butland pulling off a series of outstanding saves before he was finally nutmegged by Theo Walcott who grabbed the opener on the half-hour.

And the importance of Iheanacho’s strike was underlined by the continuing travails of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea who had earlier slipped to their third defeat in five games courtesy of Steven Naismith’s hat-trick in a 3-1 win for Everton at Goodison Park. The Chelsea Football Club handler is undoubtedly licking his wounds and counting his losses. For the first time in a lifetime, Jose Mourinho refused to blame his players for the defeat; neither did he blame himself.

Alan Pardew’s men will feel aggrieved not to leave with something after largely frustrating their opponents for much of the afternoon and coming close to grabbing the lead themselves through Jason Puncheon’s first-half header.