Warri don carry last - Five things we learnt from Ikorodu City's seven-goal thriller against Wolves

The goals were the headline, but seven-goal thrillers tend to leave behind more than just a scoreline. 

Here is what Sunday evening at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena told us about Ikorodu City, Warri Wolves, and the Nigerian Premier Football League's most intriguing title race.

For a player of his obvious ability, the fact that Sunday was Abayomi Ayodeji's first goal of the season should have been the story before the game even kicked off. It became the story of the game itself.

His opener was not a tap-in or a fortunate deflection. It was a stunning solo effort, the kind that separates players who are good from players who are dangerous. 

He picked up a defensive mistake, drove at goal, and finished with the composure of someone who had been scoring all season rather than someone breaking their duck.

His second, rounding the goalkeeper and rolling the ball goalwards before a defender could do anything about it, showed something arguably more important than technique, it showed intelligence. He read the situation before it developed and acted faster than everyone around him.

The timing matters enormously. Ikorodu City are three points behind leaders Rivers United with the season entering its final stretch. 

A forward suddenly playing with this kind of freedom and confidence is exactly what a title challenge needs. If Ayodeji carries this form into the run-in, the Oga Boys become significantly more dangerous than they already are.

15 clean sheets in a season is a remarkable number by any standard. It is an extraordinary number for a team playing in the NPFL, where the margins between clubs are fine and every point is hard-earned.

While Sunday was the first time that Ikorodu City will be without their first choice stopper, Atata, it is the first time the Oga Boys have conceded three goals at home this season, as many as they have conceded in 14 games at the Arena with Atata in goal.

Without him, City's backline looked uncertain in a way that the Warri Wolves, a side who came into this game with little to play for and nothing to lose, were able to exploit through set pieces, a long throw routine, and a penalty that should never have been conceded.

Atata's clean sheet record has quietly been one of the most important factors in Ikorodu's push for the title. His absence, if it extends beyond this game, could prove to be the most significant development of their season. 

Everything Ikorodu are building depends on knowing the goalkeeper behind them is a wall. Without that certainty, the entire defensive shape changes.

11 goals in a season is a fine return for any wide forward. A near-post header of real quality in the 24th minute showed exactly why Arumala is so highly regarded within this squad.

But Sunday also showed the other side of a forward still finding the consistency that separates good strikers from great ones. 

Three missed big chances in a single match is a problem that goes beyond a bad day at the office, it is the kind of profligacy that, at the top of a tight table, can be the difference between winning a league and finishing third.

Ikorodu led 4-2 with time still on the clock. With Arumala taking his chances, that scoreline becomes 6-2, the game dies, and Wolves never get close enough to make the final minutes uncomfortable. Instead, City spent the closing stages defending a lead that should have been unassailable.

Rivers United are back at the top after a terrible run of games. The title race will likely be decided by the finest of margins. Arumala is good enough to be the player who wins it, but he needs to take his opportunities when they come.

Let us be honest about what Warri Wolves showed on Sunday. They arrived at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena and were outplayed for significant stretches of the match. Miss E, watching professional football for the very first time, did not need a coaching badge to see it - "ball possession, dem no get" was her assessment of the opening exchanges, and it was accurate.

But Wolves also showed, in the final twenty minutes, that they had more quality available than their coach chose to deploy from the start. The late substitutions changed the energy of the match entirely. 

A side that had looked comfortable suddenly found themselves scrambling. The final score of 4-3, rather than the 4-1 or 4-2 it could easily have finished as, is a direct consequence of those changes.

The problem is the timing. By the time Wolves' best legs were on the pitch, the game was already gone. In football, momentum is everything and you cannot manufacture it in the final ten minutes of a match you have spent conceding in.

She was right. And she had never watched a professional football match before Sunday.

Three points. That is all that separates Ikorodu City from Rivers United at the top of the Nigerian Premier Football League table. Rivers United returned to the summit on Sunday with a similar result in Port Harcourt, but they are being pushed harder than the standings alone communicate.

Ikorodu are a team that scores four goals at home for the first time this season and still finds ways to make it uncomfortable. They have a goalkeeper who keeps clean sheets at a historic rate, a striker who just rediscovered his scoring touch, a captain who scores and assists from set pieces, and a forward in Arumala who, when he is on, is as good as anyone in the league.

The question is not whether Ikorodu City are good enough to win the NPFL title. Sunday showed they are. The question is whether they can produce their best football consistently enough over the remaining weeks to overturn a three-point gap against a Rivers United side that is grinding out results of their own.

Nigerian football fans who are not yet paying attention to this title race should start. It is about to get very interesting.