Since the summer, one player more than any other in the Premiership has been a revelation – rather crudely written off with a “ticking time-bomb” of an underlying knee injury, Senegalese hitman Demba Ba joined North East upstarts Newcastle United for nothing and has turned heads and made a mocker of early season expectations (as have his team in general) by firing 15 goals so far.

Newcastle will inevitably miss the African now that he has played his last game until his national team end their African Nations campaign in around a month – as would any team with a striker in such prolific form – but they may well turn to an unlikely solution to get their other strikers hitting the back of the net with similar frequency to Ba.

For the striker has revealed the secret of his success (and possibly his developing diabetes problem) is his penchant for syrup – a vice he admitted to in this hilarious video from Sky Sports:

And here is Demba in the wake of Newcastle United’s first victory over Manchester United in ten years, which came in emphatic style at St James Park last night…

Brilliant.

Rumours that Andre Villas-Boas and Kenny Dalglish have been spotted bulk-buying strawberry syrup at Costco for their own duff strikers remains unconfirmed at this stage.

Want to become the official WhatCulture blogger for your football favourite team? Click here to get started.