Ola Toivonen quickly stepping out of Keisuke Honda's shadow

As Keisuke Honda took the A-League by storm to start the season, Ola Toivonen found himself stuck on the sidelines nursing a minor injury as Melbourne Victory looked to make do with just one star.

While Honda was and continues to prove his class in the A-League, Kevin Muscat's side were missing a vital piece of the puzzle early on that Toivonen has since seamlessly filled.

With two goals and two assists from his first four appearances for Victory, the Swedish attacker has very quickly made up for lost time.

Though a recognised goal scorer, Toivonen has insisted and since proven he's not content simply scoring goals as he goes out of his way to set up his teammates.

A layoff for Terry Antonis last week against Western Sydney Wanderers underlined his selfless approach, with Antonis returning the favour against Adelaide United over the weekend and the 32 year old taking full advantage with a clinical strike. 

As Toivonen steps up, Honda has continued his red-hot start to life in the A-League with Carl Valeri admitting the Japanese star has seen the Swede shine in the shadows to some extent. 

“He’s flying under the radar because of Keisuke," Valeri told SEN Breakfast. 

"I love Keisuke as a player and as a person in the change room, but Ola’s up there too. His touches and the way he brings players into the game is special and unique for such a big striker – he has some very delicate touches.

"I’m really happy that Ola is scoring, but what I really like about Ola is that he’s creating chances by taking the attention and giving great balls – you’ve seen in the last couple of games he has set up opportunities and we’ve scored from them as well.

"The ability to do that and to score is extremely important and let’s hope he keeps going.”

Since Toivonen's debut against Central Coast Mariners, Victory have won every game and scored an average of three goals in each fixture.

Though he won't be able to drive the team like Honda, Toivonen is quickly showing the added horse power he will give a Victory side that will take some serious stopping this season.