Following a record-breaking week of loanwatch football seven days ago, everything calmed down somewhat this week and whereas we had eight goals to watch last time out, there were none this week. In the search for suitable headliners, we’re forced to focus on two players for unfortunately negative reasons.
Headliners
Nathaniel Chalobah hasn’t had the opportunity to play much competitive football so far in 2014-15 and so Burnley gave him a run out in their Under-21 Cup fixture on Tuesday night. The England Under-21 midfielder completed 80 minutes before being clattered in the neck area, at which point he was forced off and taken to hospital for checks.
Tests revealed he suffered damage to his windpipe and is required to rest for three to four weeks. The international break accounts for two of those so hopefully he’ll be fit and ready to go again without missing too much more action.
In the Netherlands on Saturday, Croatian striker Stipe Perica was sent off after half an hour of NAC Breda’s defeat at Heracles. The in-form hitman allowed his temper to get the better of him after some particularly aggressive defending on him and was given his marching orders for stamping on an opponent. He’ll serve a three-match ban as a result.
England
Victor Moses was in impressive form for Stoke both last Monday night against Newcastle and early in their match at Sunderland on Saturday, managing to provide another assist for Charlie Adam before leaving the pitch inside the first twenty minutes with a recurrence of a hamstring injury.
Christian Atsu played 45 minutes for Everton in their Europa League trip to Krasnodar in midweek and was not involved during their 2-1 defeat at Manchester United on Sunday.
Ryan Bertrand played a full ninety minutes for Southampton in their 1-0 defeat at Tottenham on Sunday.
In The Championship, Kenneth Omeruo played two full matches for Middlesbrough this week in home fixtures against Blackpool (a 1-1 draw) and Fulham (2-0 win), whilst Patrick Bamford – who this week was recalled to the England Under-21 squad – played the entirety of the first match before sitting out of the second through illness.
Jamal Blackman was an unused substitute on both occasions, and John Swift at Rotherham was not included in their matchday squad for their clashes with Blackburn and Norwich.
Netherlands
Vitesse Arnhem have finally found some form. Sure, they’ve benefited from playing against dubious-quality defences (even by Eredivisie standards) but for the second week in succession they netted half a dozen goals as ADO Den Haag were downed 6-1 at the Gelredome on Friday.
Wallace and Bertrand Traore both played a full match whilst Josh McEachran got just over five from the bench as the hosts ran riot. Kelvin Leerdam scored an early brace, fellow midfielder Marko Vejinovic netted a hat-trick of set-piece efforts and a Timothy Derijck own goal completed the rout.
Germany
Despite scoring a sensational free kick last time out, Lucas Piazón was unable to get back into the Eintracht Frankfurt side that beat Köln 3-2 on Saturday. He watched from the bench throughout, whilst Tomas Kalas was once again not even an afterthought for the visitors.
Oriol Romeu played well as Stuttgart lost by the odd goal in five on Friday at Hertha Berlin, whilst Thorgan Hazard got 67 Europa League minutes for Borussia Moenchengladbach at Zurich on Thursday and just over 20 in the league against Mainz from the bench on Sunday.
Italy
Fernando Torres played 74 minutes of Milan’s 2-0 win over Chievo on Saturday. Marco van Ginkel remains sidelined through injury, and Marko Marin remains absent for Fiorentina as he is not up to full speed yet.
France
Joao Rodriguez was an unused substitute for Bastia in their defeat to Lorient whilst Matej Delač and Arles-Avignon lost 1-0 to Chateauxroux on Friday.
Spain
Gael Kakuta was pretty lively for Rayo Vallecano in their home defeat to Barcelona this weekend. The French forward also conducted an interview in which he admitted that at various junctures in his career so far he hadn’t always been as professional as standards had required him to be but, with his mid-twenties looming large, he is now ‘all about football’.
Mario Pašalić got ten minutes as Elche drew 2-2 at Almería, whilst in La Segunda, Uli Dávila played a full match for Tenerife away to John Pírez’s former team Leganés.
Greece
There was no Greek Super League action as all matches were postponed as a mark of respect to Kostas Katsoulis, a supporter who was killed during crowd trouble last weekend. Islam Feruz therefore was not able to feature.
Chile
Universidad de Chile play San Marcos in a few hours time. If Cristian Cuevas features, news of his involvement will be added here in due course as well as mentioned on Twitter @chelseayouth.