Ogbene wants to use his 'God-given' talent of blistering pace to strike fear into Premier League defenders

​​Luton attacker Chiedozie Ogbene believes his ‘God-given’ talent of blistering pace can strike fear into Premier League defences this season, aiding the Hatters efforts to stay up.

The 26-year-old was clocked as the second fastest top flight player in the last three years recently, getting up to a speed of 36.93km/h, which is just under 23mph, during his appearance off the bench against Fulham.

Having been on the bench for Luton’s first four Premier League matches of the season, Ogbene’s cameo at Craven Cottage, plus his efforts when on international duty for the Republic of Ireland, saw him unleashed from the start against Wolves on Saturday.

The summer signing from Rotherham was eager to show his pace from the get-go, doing just that as well when nicking the ball past Nélson Semedo and sprinting on to it himself.

He carried on for the rest of the afternoon as well, a constant threat down either flank, as his and Town’s efforts should have been rewarded with more than the single point they picked up in the 1-1 draw.

Asked about becoming the second quickest player in the division, with only Kyle Walker ahead of him, Ogbene said: “I was actually quite surprised.

"I knew I had God-given talent of speed and always work on my speed, but I didn't think I was going to be as high as I am.

"I’m obviously delighted and with that stat, I can hopefully put some fear in defenders and hopefully use that to my advantage.

“It should help the team by threatening in behind.

"It should disorganise the back-line, and hopefully get my striker involved in the game and get my other winger involved in the game.

"Hopefully if they don’t track me I can go in behind.

"It’s not just myself, I think it will help the team in terms of if I have that threat and defenders tend to lean over to my side, hopefully my striker will be more involved in the game and if the striker is involved in the game it means everyone else can be involved in the game.”

“I try to use it as much as possible in the game and also work on my running technique to make sure I can perfect it.

"When I have such talent like that I have to use it to my advantage on the pitch and that’s what I tried to do.”

If Ogbene’s pace can be a factor in Luton remaining a top flight side this term, then it will have gone a long way to achieving the goals that the 26-year-old has set himself this term.

He added: “I’m sure the players have individual ones, I wasn’t in the team, so my first thought was to do everything possible to impress the manager, impress my team-mates to get in the team.

"I think I have more team orientated goals, if we can keep picking up points and retain our status in this league, then you can start looking at individual.

"But right now it’s not about individual, it’s us winning games and scoring goals.”