We’ve had another week of loan action headlined by goalscoring antics and it’s come courtesy of Chelsea’s two most prolific contributors so far this season.
Headliners
Patrick Bamford‘s star has been on the ascent for a good two years now and the young forward turned in another terrific performance this weekend as he scored a brace in Middlesbrough’s 4-1 win over Ipswich Town.
It was the first time he had scored more than once in a match at Championship level but his all-round display was as good as it gets and each goal reflected the subtlety with which he approaches and executes his craft. With Boro 2-1 ahead in the second half, he proved decisive first in rounding goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski with such confidence and skill, before than adding a second and his team’s fourth when a smart dummy flummoxed the Ipswich defence and allows him to race clear before finding the bottom corner.
Fellow Blues loanee Tomas Kalas featured at right-back whilst Kenneth Omeruo remains out of favour after a clash with manager After Karanka at their recent defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.
The only player keeping pace with Bamford’s antics during this loan season has been Bertrand Traore, and on Friday night he duly struck for the sixth time in seven games to help Vitesse to a 2-1 win over AZ and give themselves a strong chance of European qualification. For the second week in succession the Burkinabe forward took advantage of poor defending to poach himself a goal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvJaZCnts1Q
Josh McEachran was an unused substitute, whilst Wallace was not involved in the match day squad.
England
Christian Atsu wasn’t selected for Everton’s Europa League win over Dynamo Kyiv and only saw five minutes of their 3-0 humbling of Newcastle on Sunday but still managed to find time to lay on an assist as Ross Barkley connected with his pass to make it 3-0 in the closing moments.
Victor Moses was unusually quiet for Stoke in their 1-0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion and was replaced after roughly an hour of play.
In the Championship there was no Todd Kane for Nottingham Forest once again, whilst Nathaniel Chalobah missed Reading’s trip to Watford through a mixture of a minor injury and heavy rotation of the squad with Monday’s FA Cup replay against Bradford in mind.
In League One, John Swift had another positive outing for Swindon as they edged a 1-0 win at Port Vale, but there was disappointment for Lewis Baker and Alex Davey, with the former getting just fifteen minutes for Milton Keynes Dons away to Walsall and the latter remaining unused for Scunthorpe at Sheffield United.
Spain
Gael Kakuta played well for Rayo Vallecano against as they bounced back from defeat at Barcelona last time out to defeat Granada 3-1 on Saturday.
Mario Pašalić and Elche lost 3-0 at Sevilla with the Croatian completing 66 minutes.
Germany
There were a pair of 4-0 scoreline for Chelsea’s Bundesliga loanees this weekend but neither were particularly notable; Oriol Romeu came on as a substitute during Stuttgart’s reverse whilst Lucas Piazon didn’t even get that far as Eintracht Frankfurt hammered lowly Paderborn.
Italy
Stipe Perica was an unused substitute for Udinese away to Atalanta on Sunday whilst Monday’s clash between Fiorentina and Milan will see Mohamed Salah potentially start and Marco van Ginkel almost certainly be on the bench.
Salah did have a midweek Europa League impact however, laying on a goal for Josip Ilicic in their 1-1 draw with Roma. It means he has been directly involved in I Viola’s last eight goals; scoring six and making the other two.
Belgium
Anderlecht lost 2-1 at home to Gent without the injured Marko Marin.
Portugal
Neither Uli Dávila nor Joao Rodriguez featured for Vitória Setúbak in their 1-0 win over Vitória Guimaraes.
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Matej Delač made his second FK Sarajevo debut this weekend and kept a clean sheet in a goalless draw at home to FK Borac.
Chile
Cristian Cuevas was an unused substitute for Universidad de Chile in their 2-1 defeat at home to Colo Colo.