Ademola Lookman completed a laudable turnaround on Tuesday when he was named in the Premier League Team of the Week—as selected by Alan Shearer—following his exploits for Fulham over the weekend.

Lookman was arguably the Cottagers’ outstanding player as they defeated Leicester City 2-1 away for only their second victory of the season, climbing out of the bottom three in the process.

In early November, the wideman was the Londoners’ pariah after spurning a late penalty against West Ham United to deny the newly promoted side the chance to take a valuable point away from home.
If missing a late penalty is—perhaps—forgivable, the nature of Lookman’s failure was not, as he appeared to hesitate, dithering, on his run up to the penalty, before sending an unconvincing half-hearted paneka into the hands of Lukasz Fabianski.

There are times and places to attempt a flamboyant panenka, and there are ways to execute the technique, this was neither the context nor the approach, and Lookman was left as the brunt of ridicule on social media.

It’s not easy to make Scott Parker, the mild-mannered, softly spoken Fulham manager, angry, but Lookman succeeded in doing just that, with the ex-England and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder taking aim at the Anglo-Nigerian youngster after the match.

“I’m disappointed and angry,” Parker told Match of the Day. “You can’t take penalties like that and he knows that. He’s a young player and he’s learning.

“The boy has made a mistake. Ade is the first to understand that,” Parker added. “When you’re young and you’re learning you have to learn quick.

He is disappointed and rightly so,” he concluded. “This is part and parcel of football, of growing as players and as a team. We’ll get around him now.”

Everton, he contributed an assist during a vibrant and eye-catching display, albeit in a 3-2 defeat, and looked undaunted by the previous failure hanging over him.

His dribbling caught the eye—only Ivan Cavaleiro and Alex Iwobi completed more take-ons—while Lookman’s three key passes highlighted his creative qualities.