The goals continue to flow steadily on the loan front and we have three more to bring to you this weekend, beginning with a pair of Championship headliners.
Headliners
John Swift’s month-long stay at Brentford is due to end next weekend but, considering his impressive recent form has coincided with a three-match winning run, the odds are that the Bees will extend the deal until the turn of the year. He scored his first goal for the West London outfit on Saturday, connecting with a deep cross from the right to thump a header past Charlton goalkeeper Stephen Henderson and set his team on their way to a 3-0 victory.
He was the second Chelsea youngster to score in West London in the space of a couple of hours too. Lucas Piazon had given Reading the lead at Fulham, notching his second Royals goal in the process, but despite holding a 2-0 half time lead, Steve Clarke’s boys were shocked as Fulham rampaged their way to a 4-2 turnaround victory.
Piazon had played an hour away to Rotherham earlier in the week, whilst Michael Hector played the full duration of both matches at the heart of their defence.
In Turkey, Marko Marin was credited with a second goal of the season as his inswinging free kick helped open the goalscoring for Trabzonspor away to Sivasspor. Some places haven’t credited the goal to Marin but his club did and that’s good enough for us.
England
Nathan Aké retained his starting place at left-back for Watford after a troublesome afternoon against Arsenal last time out, and he fared much better in helping keep a clean sheet as part of a 2-0 victory at Stoke. His personal performance was up and down but he held his own against Xherdan Shaqiri for the most part and was an effective presence playing quite close to his central defenders. Marco van Ginkel was an unused substitute in the same contest, bringing to an end his run of having played a part in every one of their league matches this season.
Patrick Bamford played half an hour as a substitute for Crystal Palace in a narrow 1-0 defeat at Leicester City. He played fairly well (although a number of Palace fans would disagree) and might have had a penalty on an afternoon where Alan Pardew’s men were denied several shouts for a spot kick.
Victor Moses was ineligible to play for West Ham against his parent club Chelsea, and Christian Atsu wasn’t in Bournemouth’s matchday squad against Tottenham, because the Premier League’s 17th-placed team have no use for a talented young winger.
Tomas Kalas started twice at right-back for Middlesbrough, completing ninety minutes in their 1-0 midweek defeat to Cardiff before getting an hour of their 3-1 win at Wolves. In League One, Jordan Houghton played twenty minutes of Gillingham’s 2-1 victory against Scunthorpe and an hour of a draw at home that kept his team top of the table, but Alex Davey continues to find it hard to get back into the Peterborough reckoning, playing no minutes over two fixtures this week.
Netherlands
Vitesse faced their sternest test of the season so far as they welcomed Ajax to the Gelredome on Sunday afternoon but, despite coming into the match in good nick, individual mistakes and inconsistencies cost them a 3-1 defeat. Lewis Baker and Dominic Solanke played the full ninety minutes and played fairly well, whilst there was five minutes from the bench for Danilo Pantic. Unfortunately for the Serbian, his mistake allowed Lasse Schone to score the game’s fourth and final goal to extinguish any aspirations Vitesse had of a late equaliser.
Nathan was an unused substitute whilst Izzy Brown was just short of match fitness following a recent layoff and wasn’t selected.
Todd Kane, who this week gave an interview discussing his…’combative’ style, helped NEC Nijmegen to a 1-1 draw against Groningen.
Germany
Andreas Christensen had a largely positive week, albeit one with an unfortunate asterisk against his name. It began with a fine performance as Borussia Mönchengladbach went to Juventus in the Champions League and kept a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw, and ended with another good showing in a resounding 3-1 Bundesliga victory over Schalke. The asterisk came in the form of an own goal as he unfortunately turned Max Meyer’s cross into the net but it’s beyond doubt at this stage that he’s a key part of their defence and trending upwards each and every week.
Italy
Juan Cuadrado played well against Christensen’s Gladbach side but, despite his lively contributions, couldn’t find a way through their staunch rearguard. He was then rested for Juve’s 2-0 win over Atalanta in Sunday Serie A action.
Stipe Perica was an unused substitute for Udinese against Frosinone, as was Wallace for Carpi verus Bologna, whilst Nathaniel Chalobah saw no time in either of Napoli’s matches in European or domestic competition, remaining on just five minutes of club football this season.
France
Mario Pašalić played the last half an hour or so of Monaco’s narrow 1-0 victory over Qarabag in the Europa League, before completing a typically industrious ninety minutes in another single-goal victory at Reims over the weekend.
Jeremie Boga got twenty minutes for Rennes at Lorient and showed enough of his undoubted skill and ability to suggest he can be relied upon to fill the shoes of Giovanni Sio, who will serve a one-match ban following his dismissal late in the game.
Belgium
STVV trio Victorien Angban, Cristian Cuevas and Joao Rodriguez all contributed to a 2-1 win over Kortrijk on Sunday to keep them on the fringes of the Europa League qualifying places. Angban and Cuevas each played ninety minutes – the latter beginning to establish himself as a regular starter, something Angban has been since day one – whilst Rodriguez was a late substitute.
Cristian Manea was an unused substitute for Mouscron but at least he had a great view of their 4-0 dismantling of Genk on Friday night.
Turkey
Kenneth Omeruo was fit enough to return to the bench for Kasimpasa against Bursaspor but the 1-0 defeat meant he wasn’t able to get on and make a playing comeback.
Scotland
Islam Feruz was an unused substitute for Hibernian away to Raith.
Portugal
Uli Dávila was an unused substitute for Vitória Setúbal in their 2-0 win at Moreirense.
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Matej Delač remains back at Cobham receiving treatment on his recent knee injury and is not ready to contribute for FK Sarajevo just yet.