It’s a far busier Loan Report this weekend after a damp squib last time out with two wingers, each harbouring ambitions of returning to Stamford Bridge for another crack at the Chelsea first team squad, grabbing their first goals of the season. There were also assists for two of the five Blues in Arnhem but we begin with Victor Moses.
Headliners
Moses caught the eye with an impressive West Ham United debut last Monday night at home to Newcastle United and he made further headlines on Saturday when he opened the scoring in what would eventually become a famous 2-1 win away to Manchester City. It was a rather nice goal indeed:
Moses has found it significantly tricky to hold down a spot as one of Jose Mourinho’s rotational attacking midfielders and so has Mohamed Salah. Back in January he packed up and moved to Italian club Fiorentina on loan before enjoying an excellent run of form that led to a fight for his services ahead of this season. Roma were the successful bidder and, after a decent Champions League display against Barcelona in midweek, Salah opened his account for the Giallorossi on Sunday at home to Sassuolo with this beauty:
Moving over to the Netherlands, Vitesse staged their annual tribute to those who served in the 1944 Battle of Arnhem by adopting the claret and blue colours of the British 1st Airborne Division for the home fixture against De Graafschap. They duly ran out comfortable 3-0 winners with Lewis Baker and Dominic Solanke – in his first senior start – claiming first-half assists. Baker whipped over a corner for Guram Kashia to score for the third successive fixture, and later in the half Solanke showed the presence of mind to cut back when well placed to allow Valeri Qazaishvili to double the lead.
Milot Rashica sewed the points up with a third during the second half whilst Danilo Pantic saw some thirty minutes of action, the most yet in an Arnhem shirt. Nathan, who started on the left of a front three, had a quiet 75 minutes before departing to give Izzy Brown a late cameo appearance.
England
Patrick Bamford and Nathan Aké have struggled for Premier League minutes so far this term but both saw action this weekend, albeit briefly. Aké played the final ten minutes of Watford’s 2-1 win at Newcastle, adding defensive presence and security to the side late on, whilst Bamford came on as an 83rd-minute substitute for a Crystal Palace side trying to overturn a 1-0 deficit at Tottenham (they were unable to).
Marco van Ginkel remains a fixture in Stoke’s midfield, getting 79 minutes against Leicester, but Christian Atsu has simply not been able to work his way into Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth plans and was absent from the matchday squad yet again on Saturday.
Championship sides had a double helping of football this week but, after a shaky display against MK Dons last weekend, Tomas Kalas was an unused substitute for Middlesbrough against both Brentford and Nottingham Forest. Michael Hector started both of Reading’s matches – a defeat to Derby and a win over Bolton – at centre-back, with Lucas Piazon a 79th-minute substitute in the latter.
In League One, Jordan Houghton played the full ninety minutes as Gillingham lost 2-1 at Colchester, whilst Alex Davey was an unused substitute for Peterborough.
France
Mario Pašalić played the first half of Monaco’s Europa League Group Stage opener away to Anderlecht before going off and then playing no part in their Ligue 1 defeat at home to Lorient on Sunday.
Jeremie Boga made his Rennes debut as a late substitute at home to Lille on Friday night but, in a fractious and temperamental ending to the contest, he was unable to contribute very much of note.
Italy
Nathaniel Chalobah is still awaiting his first involvement for Napoli as he didn’t feature in midweek Europa League action against Club Brugge nor against Lazio in Serie A on Sunday. Indeed, it was a quiet affair on the peninsula away from Salah as Stipe Perica was an unused sub as usual for Udinese whilst Wallace didn’t make Carpi’s matchday squad.
Juan Cuadrado at least started Juventus’ Champions League draw at Manchester City, and played fairly well too, and he also played the full match as they won 2-0 at Genoa to finally get a league win this season.
Netherlands
Todd Kane’s NEC Nijmegen career has started very well indeed; he continued at right-back on Friday night in their 2-0 win over Heerenveen for a third consecutive clean sheet and has definitely caught the eye in his first month at the newly-promoted Eredivisie club.
Germany
Following Borussia Mönchengladbach’s latest humbling of the still-young season at Sevilla in the Champions League, Andreas Christensen was restored to the starting line-up for the first time since the opening day of the season. They still lost a fifth straight Bundesliga contest, 1-0 at Köln, but Christensen – playing at centre-back – was one of the better performers on the afternoon.
Belgium
Sint-Truiden go from strength to strength, moving into third place this weekend following a 3-0 win away to Westerlo, who themselves were once a regular recipient of Chelsea youngsters on loan. Victorien Angban played the full match, Cristian Cuevas got an hour at left-back, and Joao Rodriguez played most of the second half off the bench.
Cristian Manea is still awaiting his first involvement for Mouscron however.
Turkey
Kenneth Omeruo remains an ever-present at the heart of the Kasimpasa defence and a 3-0 win at Eskisehirspor bumped them up to fifth in the table. Trabzonspor, meanwhile, are sitting second after their first defeat of the season, a 1-0 reverse to Galatasaray in which Marko Marin started for the first time, playing the full ninety minutes and hitting the crossbar.
Scotland
Islam Feruz was an unused substitute for Hibernian away to Livingston.
Portugal
Uli Dávila was an unused substitute for Vitória Setúbal on Friday night.
Bosnia-Herzegovina
FK Sarajevo played on Friday night, going away to Radnik Bijeljina and winning 3-0 with a clean sheet for Matej Delač.