Aina, Salah and Aribo: What did you miss this weekend?

In this feature, GOAL's Seye Omidiora picks out some of the under-the-radar stats you may have missed this week - and explains what they mean for Africa's biggest stars.

Aina featured for Torino on Friday but the right wing-back was powerless to resist a Roma side that won 3-0.

The wide defender had a strong game, nonetheless and won every ground duel he contested in for the game’s entirety.

No player on either side was as dominant as the former Chelsea man who ended the campaign positively after a frustrating period following the Africa Cup of Nations.

After losing the Scottish Premiership title to rivals Celtic and falling at the last hurdle in the Europa League, Joe Aribo, Leon Balogun and Calvin Bassey ended the campaign with a trophy.

The ‘Gers secured a 2-0 success over Hearts in the Scottish Cup, ending a 12-year wait to claim the honour since their last win in 2009.

All three played the majority of the game with Aribo withdrawn deep into extra time.

While Chelsea picked up a 2-1 win over relegated Watford on the final day, the concession of a goal continued Mendy’s unwanted run at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues goalkeeper has not prevented an opposition goal in three games on the trot and their wider struggles show the shot-stopper kept only two shut-outs in eight home league games in 2022.

It was not the ending to 2021/22 that the Senegal star would have wanted in what was a testing second half of the season for the Blues.

A goal off the bench against Wolverhampton Wanderers was enough to see the Liverpool wide attacker win his third Golden Boot award since moving to Merseyside, sharing the award with Son Heung-min who also netted 23 goals in 2021/22.

Interestingly, the pair’s tally matches Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy’s respective returns from 2020/21 and 2019/20 and is only one more than the 2018/19 year where Salah, Sadio Mane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all netted 22 times.

The Egypt forward’s third Golden Boot sees him supplant Didier Drogba as Africa’s finest in this area with the Chelsea legend winning the award twice and he is now only one behind Thierry Henry’s record of four.

After a brilliant start to life at Barcelona, the goals dried up in the closing stages of the season with Aubameyang managing only two in his final six La Liga appearances.

Upon closer inspection, the striker’s off-kilter shooting was evident in those five games in which he didn't score, including Sunday's 2-0 defeat by Villarreal.

Having hit at least one effort on target in eight of his nine league games, the frontman could only make the keeper work in two of the final six fixtures.

This does not bode well for the 32-year-old whose lull has not gone unnoticed.