Victor Osimhen enjoyed yet another outstanding weekend during what is proving to be a magnificent campaign, as he ensured Atalanta became the latest side to fall to Napoli’s relentless winning streak.
He became the all-time top-scoring Nigerian player in Serie A in the process, while his impressive stats this season suggest there’s even more to come — his head coach certainly hopes so.
Nigerian quartet David Okereke, Paul Onuachu, Ademola Lookman and Dominic Solanke were also among the goals, scoring several dazzling efforts between them, while Mohamed Salah and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang endured mixed fortunes in the Premier League.
It’s becoming something of a theme this season that Super Eagle Osimhen is consistently proving to be Africa’s star performer of each gameweek.
This weekend, things were no different, as the Napoli striker wrote his name in the history books.
Napoli were trailing when Osimhen made his historic intervention in the 23rd minute, rising highest to meet Piotr Zielenski’s cross at the back post and heading home emphatically.
Twelve minutes later, he turned provider when he set up Eljif Elmas to add the visitors’ second, demonstrating rare awareness to cut the ball back for his Macedonian colleague to convert.
Atalanta ultimately proved unable to respond, and Napoli held on to win 2-1 and move six points clear at the top of Serie A.
They’ve now won their last nine league games, and even though their overall winning streak came to an end against Liverpool in the Champions League in midweek action, they have been installed as firm favourites to end their 32-year wait for a domestic championship.
With Osimhen leading the line, anything seems possible.
Before this weekend, Simy Nwankwo — currently with second-tier Benevento — held the Nigerian record for Serie A goals, having netted 31 times across 101 appearances with the likes of Crotone, Salernitana and Parma.
Simy himself overtook Obafemi Martins, who blazed 28 Italian top flight goals before leaving Internazionale for Newcastle United in 2006.
Martins registered his tally in 88 league appearances, whereas Osimhen has required just 60 Serie A games with Napoli to hit 32 goals.
This season, only four players in Europe’s major leagues — Erling Haaland, Eric-Maxim Choupo Moting and Robert Lewandowski — are scoring at a faster rate than the 23-year-old, who is currently averaging a goal every 91 minutes in league action for Luciano Spalletti’s side.
Since returning from a muscle injury in the middle of last month, Osimhen has had a hand in eight goals in six games across all competitions, with the midweek defeat by the Reds the only game in which he didn’t find the net.
Despite his fine form, Spalletti doesn’t appear to be entirely happy with his leading man, and has urged the striker to improve his interplay with those around him.
“Osimhen is a player who has these sudden surges and spurts,” he told DAZN, “but every now and then he needs to figure out how to pass it and work with his teammates.
“He was a little tired today, but still created chances, caused issues, and when Atalanta pushed their wingbacks higher with the strikers wide, he was alone in midfield and in those situations can do more than he did tonight.”
Osimhen was also guilty for an early handball which allowed compatriot Lookman to open the scoring from the spot — the first converted penalty of his career.
The match was billed as a showdown between the two Super Eagles, and while Lookman was overshadowed on the day, his latest goal takes his tally for the season to an admirable six goals in 13 league outings.
Osimhen’s potential rivals for a starting spot with the national side were also among the goals this weekend, with Onuachu and Okereke both finding the net.
Onuachu scored all four goals — two goals in each half — as Genk thumped Charleroi 4-1 to move nine points clear at the top of the Pro League.
The towering striker now has 12 goals in 13 league games so far this term, and like Osimhen, is leading his division’s scoring charts.
Okereke doesn’t quite have the volumes of his compatriots, but he scored arguably the pick of this weekend’s Nigerian goals when he reacted quickest to slam home a first-time left-footed volley from the edge of the box as Cremonese drew 2-2 at Salernitana.
Potentially rivalling Okereke’s thunderous effort for sheer technical brilliance was Solanke’s flamboyant clipped effort in Bournemouth’s 4-3 Premier League defeat by Leeds United.
The striker put the visitors 3-1 up in the 48th minute when he met Marcus Tavernier’s cross from the left by flicking the ball behind him and beyond Illan Meslier with the inside of his left heel.
It was a goal reminiscent of Nwankwo Kanu’s legendary back-heeled effort against Middlesbrough as Arsenal pummelled the North Easterners 6-1 in a Prem clash in 1999, with the Super Eagles great also turning to impulsive inspiration to squeeze the ball home.
Nonetheless, Solanke’s mind was elsewhere after the Cherries threw away their advantage to lose 4-3.
“It’s the second game in a row where we have been two goals up and managed to lose a game so it’s an issue we need to fix,” he told the club’s official TV station.
“It’s not really good enough to lose with a two-goal lead, two games in a row so we need to try and put it right.
“[There are] no positives at the moment, just negatives so we need to try and put it right because in the first half we were playing so well, doing so well to get the lead and we just need to figure out how we see out the game.”
Elsewhere in the Premier League, Salah scored two first-half goals to give Liverpool the cushion they needed to see off Tottenham Hotspur in North London and — potentially — put their mini-crisis behind them.
This was Salah as electric and as sharp as he was during his remarkable run in late 2021, when at one point he appeared destined for the Ballon d’Or, with the forward emphatically shaking off the malaise that appeared to have enveloped him at times in recent weeks.
Salah opened the scoring in the 11th minute when he met Darwin Nunez‘s lay-off before sending a low driving effort beyond Hugo Lloris, maybe settling a few Reds jitters after some difficult weeks for the club in the top flight.
Just before half-time, he added a second, bringing the ball down after Eric Dier’s hapless defensive header landed in his path, before tearing towards Lloris’s goal and then dinking the ball beyond the Frenchman to double the visitors’ advantage en route to a 2-1 triumph.
Despite the stresses Liverpool have been put under this season, including those miserable defeats against Nottingham Forest and Leeds, Salah’s consistency has been a bubbling subplot.
He’s now had a hand in 19 goals in his last 20 matches for the Reds this term, only once before registering more combined goals and assists in his first 20 games of a season.
Only Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen have scored in more different away stadiums for Liverpool than the Egyptian, whose brace took him up to 126 Prem goals – joint 16th in the overall standings, having overtaken Nicolas Anelka this weekend.
For Aubameyang, who once shared a Golden Boot with Salah, there appears unlikely to be such a scintillating return to form any time soon.
Having had a hand in four goals during his first five matches for Chelsea, it appeared as though he could be the solution to the Blues’ goalscoring woes – and end the SW16 Curse of the No. 9 shirt.
The Gabon international has failed to score since October 11 — a run of seven matches in which he’s registered just one assist — and didn’t even muster a shot on target against his former club on Sunday.
Surely, there could have been no concerns about Auba’s motivation for this one, considering the London derby gave him the opportunity to silence Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta, with whom he endured such a public falling out a year ago.
Yet Gabriel’s winner ensured Arteta was left celebrating, while Aubameyang — substituted after an ineffectual 63 minutes — wholly failed to seize the occasion.
Booed by the visiting supporters, struggling to get involved in the action, he cut a dejected figure on the bench after being replaced by Armando Broja, and the highs of his brief goal-laden time at Barcelona feel a long time ago now.
It was a hubristic downfall for Auba, who was accused of disrespecting Arsenal after appearing in a BT Sport commercial in which he announced “Nothing personal. I’m back, I’m blue, I’m ready” before the match.
“Nothing personal…London is red,” match-winner Gabriel wrote on his Twitter handle after the match. Touché.
Credit: Source link