Dennis moves past Amokachi, now joint 13th Nigerian top scorer in EPL history

Emmanuel Dennis scored his first Premier League goal for Nottingham Forest Monday evening to move past Daniel Amokachi in the Premier League list of Nigerian top scorers.

The former Watford player scored on 15 minutes to put Forest ahead in their Premier League clash at the City Ground and the goal was his 11th in 39 appearances since he made his debut in the competition last season.

The goal moved him above Amokachi who scored 10 times in 43 appearances in the competition.

Dennis has now become the joint 13th top scoring Nigerian ever in the Premier League together with Ade Akinbiyi (in 76 appearances) and Ademola Lookman (in 96 games).

Yakubu Aiyegbeni tops the list with 95 goals in 252 games and he is followed by Nwankwo Kanu who netted 54 times in 273 appearances while Efan Ekoku is third with 52 goals in 160 games.

Dennis scored 10 times for Watford in his first season in the Premier League to become the 16th player to hit double figure in front of the net out of 33 Nigerians who have scored in the competition.

The 24 year old made his first start in six appearances for Forest in the game and was deployed as the main striker in place of his Nigerian compatriot at the club, Taiwo Awoniyi who was on the bench for the entire duration of the game.

The goal, interestingly is Dennis’ third in three appearances against Aston Villa after scoring home and away against the Steven Gerrad-led side last season.

The visitors have now become the first club in the Premier League the Nigerian would score against in two consecutive Premier League seasons.

Last year, Aston Villa was one of only two clubs (Brentford) Dennis would score twice against (home and away) in a single Premier League season.