It was a final day heartache for the second season in a row for the Nigerian duo of Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho who could not help their club, Leicester City qualify for the UEFA Champions League.
The Foxes needed a win of any sort to be in a position to take advantage of any slip by Liverpool and Chelsea but the King Power stadium outfit lost a 2-1 lead to lose 4-2 to visiting Tottenham Hotspurs who were also in the hunt for a place in Europe.
Both Ndidi and Iheanacho were on from the start to the finish with the latter failing to score on the day it mattered most after scoring 11 goals in his last 11 games prior to the ‘final’ against Spurs at the King Power stadium.
Ndidi started 25 of the 26 league games he featured in this season, scoring once while he bagged four assists.
The midfielder missed eight games between September and November due to a tear in his abductor muscle. He also missed three more games between the end of January and the first week of February due to a thigh muscle strain.
Iheanacho however enjoyed his best season as a striker since August 2015 when he made his debut in the competition, hiting double figures for the first time with his 12 goals in 25 appearances.
He scored 11 of the goals in his last 12 games to become the most prolific striker in Premier League history to score as many goals between March and May.
The former Manchester City striker’s four goals in March got him the player of the month award while his four goals in April further got him another nomination but he lost to West Ham’s Jesse Lingard.
At the Craven Cottage, the Nigerian quartet of Ademola Lookman, Tosin Adarabioyo, Josh Maja and Ola Aina failed to help Fulham already relegated Fulham end the season with a win.
The Cottagers who failed to retain their Premier League status barely a year after the club got promoted to the English topflight had only Lookman and Adarabioyo in the starting line up against Newcastle.
Fulham lost 2-0 to the visiting Magpies with Aina an unused substitute for second game in a row after he was left on the bench in the 1-1 draw at Manchester United in the penultimate game of the season.
The Torino defender started all 31 games he played on loan for Fulham and scored twice with one of the goals (the 2-0 win against West Brom) voted the Premier League goal of the month.
Lookman, also on loan from Bundesliga side, RB Leipzig scored four goals in the 35 games he featured in for the Cottagers.
He also bagged four assists while another loanee, Maja who was subbed on for Lookman in the loss to Newcastle featured 16 times for the Cottagers following his switch from the Ligue 1 to the Premier League at the end of Janaury and scored three times.