VICE Sports Premier League Player of the Weekend: Odion Ighalo

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports UK.

Odion Ighalo sounds more like a cinema somewhere you've never heard of than one of the most exciting attacking talents in the Premier League. Leading the line at Watford, a team nobody really expected to do much more than whimper their way to relegation under their 10th manager of the season, Ighalo is subverting opinion as much as his club is.

There don't seem to be a lot of nice things said about Watford. With their vaguely Dortmund-like kit, a manager who's impossibly well dressed and undeniably handsome, they should be the team we're all falling over ourselves to back – but we're not. Perhaps it's because their recent history in the top flight has been so inconsequential, or that they've yet to shake off their reputation as a yo-yo club with fairly questionable ownership, but that should all be about to change.

Ighalo and Troy Deeney are a timely reminder of what we used to enjoy most in the Premier League: an old-fashioned strike-partnership. Manchester United had Cole, Yorke, and Sheringham, with Solskjaer coming off the bench; Liverpool had Suarez and Sturridge; the old Newcastle entertainers had so many strikers it was ridiculous; and Arsenal once went unbeaten with Henry and Bergkamp leading their line.

But recently, the attacking duo has seemed to belong to a bygone era. While the Liverpool SAS was only a few seasons ago, and some of us have fond memories of what Keane and Berbatov did together at Tottenham, contemporary tactics have settled on a single striker system, with advancing bodies from midfield the main source of support. However, there's been none of that convention from the Hornets, and happily so. Their manager may look more like a man you'd see oiled and shirtless on the front of a particularly brown-paged erotic novel, but his tactics have been wonderfully English.

Troy Deeney, a man who perhaps deserves his own column one of these days, does all of the running. He drops deep, he links play in the midfield, he constantly presses the defence and is the main supply line for everything Ighalo does. They operate much like a newborn bird and it's mother: Ighalo stays in the nest (on the shoulder of the deepest defender) while the mother looks to provide from elsewhere (Deeney gets the ball and slips it back through to his striking partner).

What's best about these two is that one of their finest performances has come against Jurgen Klopp. Only one week ago he was complaining about how overtly defensive tactics were offensive to him, leading him to deny Tony Pulis a customery post-game handshake. This week, however, his team weren't just outplayed in defeat, but out-attacked. Their offensive options of Divok Origi, Christian Benteke, Philippe Countinho and Roberto Firmino might look and sound on paper like a Brazilian-Belgian explosion of goals waiting to happen, but they conspired to show about as much cutting edge as a plastic spoon.

The goals that Watford scored were particularly satisfying. The first, a somewhat questionable kick out of the goalkeeper's hands, was allowed regardless, which left Adam Bogdan looking decidedly like Simon Mignolet after just three minutes. The second, one of those link-ups between Deeney and Ighalo, was the moment of the game. Ighalo stretched the defence on the shoulder as Deeney scrapped for the ball behind him, lifting a somewhat hopeful pass over the top and hoping Ighalo had the strength and pace to get in behind.

Brushing off the defence with little problem, the Nigerian pounced on the ball from a difficult angle, turning it in across the goalkeeper on the half-volley. It was made to look much better when Origi had the same chance just after half-time and completely fluffed his lines, sending the ball straight at the goalkeeper. It was the type of finish that highlights just how far a positive mentality and confidence can go in sport.

The third goal Watford scored, and the second for Ighalo, was another quick break, and another move that left Liverpool looking awfully ordinary and vulnerable. Finding himself free in the centre with the whole goal to aim for, when the cross found Ighalo, nobody had any doubt as to the result.

This season has been all about the underdogs – at least that's what the Sky Sports advertisement team would have you believe. Watford are, in their own right, as big a story as Leicester, with Deeney and Ighalo the main reasons behind that unexpected surge up the league. So for services to goal scoring and keeping the strike-partnership alive in the modern game, Odion Ighalo is our Player of the Weekend.

@bainsxiii