Italy players in Premier League: Udogie assist, Okoli wins, Calafiori advice | OneFootball

Italy international Destiny Udogie registered an assist for Tottenham during their entertaining 4-1 win over West Ham United, alongside Guglielmo Vicario, while Caleb Okoli was the only Azzurri representative in the Premier League to pick up a win over the weekend.

Here is how the Italy internationals in the Premier League got on in the eighth round of fixtures.

Tottenham delight for Italy duo

Guglielmo Vicario and Destiny Udogie both started as usual in an entertaining 4-1 London derby victory for Tottenham against West Ham. The recently-capped Italy goalkeeper could not have done too much to prevent Mohammed Kudus on the cut-back in the first-half, but had relatively little to do from there.

Udogie had slightly more involvement in the game’s proceedings. He was criticised for some soft defending in the penalty area when Jarrod Boewn provided the assist for Kudus’s goal, but went on to have an encouraging game afterwards.

He registered an assist for Yves Bissouma not long into the second half, pouncing on a great pass from Son Heung-min, before cutting back for his teammate to slam home from the edge of the area.

Okoli and Leicester win

Caleb Okoli played the full 90 minutes at centre-back as Leicester City ended up 3-2 victors in a chaotic comeback against Southampton on Saturday. The Foxes fell behind after eight minutes, then conceded again 20 minutes later, but responded with three second-half goals, grabbing the last in the eighth minute of stoppage time.

Okoli, who has been included in the last two Italy squads, was given an average rating of 5/10 by the English press, who praised his strength, but noted a tendency to let players slip past him against Southampton.

Word of advice for Calafiori

Riccardo Calafiori was part of the Arsenal side that lost 2-0 away to Bournemouth on Saturday. He and his teammates were reduced to 10 after William Saliba’s dismissal half an hour in, and are also in the midst of a minor injury crisis, without captain Martin Odegaard or England star Bukayo Saka.

It wasn’t the most exciting day-out for Calafiori, and outlets including Football London noted that he has a slight tendency to rush into tackles. He did a relatively sound job in his defensive duties for the hour after Arsenal were reduced to 10 men though.

Elsewhere in the Premier League this weekend, Italy’s Emerson Palmieri played the full 90 minutes during West Ham’s 4-1 loss away to Tottenham and Italy international Sandro Tonali started in a 1-0 loss to Brighton.

Neither Federico Chiesa nor Cesare Casadei were in the matchday squads as Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-1 at Anfield. Jorginho was an unused substitute in Arsenal’s loss to Bournemouth.