BY JACOB AJOM & BEN EFE

Super Eagles and Chelsea midfielder, John Obi Mikel was the biggest villain at Stamford Bridge yesterday as his error in the midfield gifted Liverpool the leeway to recording a surprise 2-1 over Chelsea in Premier League game.

More troubles seem to be waiting for the Nigerian international as Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi who exempted the player from the two friendly matches the Eagles played last week because of injury said he would be surprised and “disappointed” to see the Nigerian line up for Chelsea against Liverpool on Sunday.

The Stamford Bridge match came five days after the Eagles battled Zambia to a 2-0 win in Kaduna without Mikel who claimed he was ‘injured. Keshi had also exempted him from the previous international friendly against Botswana three days earlier for the same reasons.

The Chelsea line up against Liverpool was announced with Mikel included 24 hours before the match. He had trained with his team mates since his arrival from the international break, leading to speculations that he was deliberately feigning injury while in Nigeria.

Fit for Chelsea... Midfielder John Mikel Obi (R) vies for the ball against Liverpool’s Craig Bellamy (L) during an English Premier League football match at Stamford Bridge yesterday. Photo: AFP

Mikel gifted the ball away to Liverpool’s Craig Bellamy. The Welshman turned and passed the ball to Suarez who found Meriles Rodriguez. Rodriguez beat unrushing Petre Czech for Liverpool’s opener.

Expectedly, Mikel was shipped out in the second half by coach Andre Villas Boas. As he went out Liverpool fans mocked him: ‘You should have stayed at a big club’.

Mikel’s level of commitment to the national team has come under public scrutiny several times even before the coming of Keshi. He had a no-love-lost relationship with Keshi’s predecessor, Samson Siasia due to his apparent lack of commitment to national assignments.

He is however hardly missed by Super Eagles fans who believe the Holland 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup second best player’s performance had dropped drastically in recent times.

The question on the lips of football fans is, will Keshi extend fresh invitation to Mikel for future Super Eagles matches?