We’re not even into September yet but we’re up to 13 goals from Chelsea’s loanees this week after Tammy Abraham and Jeremie Boga found the back of the net this week. We lead with them whilst checking in on the newest loanee ahead of this Wednesday’s transfer deadline.
Headliners
Abraham popped up first on Tuesday night with an extra time winner for Bristol City in their League Cup tie at Scunthorpe, and followed that with a Man of the Match performance against recently-relegated Aston Villa in the league on Saturday. A goal and assist helped City to a 3-0 win and, with the Robins close to selling last season’s leading goalscorer Jonathan Kodjia to Derby County, this is now Tammy’s team.
He leads the way amongst Chelsea’s huge contingent of development talent playing elsewhere but Boga has the potential to shine for Granada in La Liga this season, and showed as much with a fine individual goal away to Las Palmas on Sunday. Unfortunately it came as part of a 5-1 defeat but, with the club having signed Andreas Pereira from Manchester United this week, it’s a timely reminder that he offers plenty in the midst of competition for places in attacking midfield.
https://twitter.com/King__Danny/status/769950743164051458
On Saturday, Mario Pašalić became the 24th loanee as he joined AC Milan on a season-long loan worth €1m (with Milan paying less the more he plays) and guaranteeing the Rossoneri the first of first refusal should Chelsea consider permanent offers for the Croatian midfielder. A back injury hampered the final few months of an otherwise good season at Monaco a year ago and he should be able to strengthen a poor central midfield at the San Siro.
Patrick Bamford will shortly become the 25th loanee as he finalises a year-long stay at Burnley, and in the coming days as many as 13 more may yet find themselves playing in different colours for 2016-17.
England
The League Cup allowed Nathan Aké to make a first start for Bournemouth and he completed a no-frills ninety minutes in a 2-1 win away at fourth-tier Morecambe. He was back on the bench for the weekend Premier League trip to Crystal Palace and entered as an 88th minute substitute to help shore up a 1-0 lead but, for the second week running, his efforts were rendered useless by the Cherries conceding a late goal.
Kasey Palmer was handed his first Huddersfield Town start against Wolves in a battle of two unbeaten Championship sides and he put in a solid hour of work before making way, Town winning 1-0 and remaining top of the league. Just behind them in second place are Tomas Kalas and Fulham after a win and a clean sheet at Blackburn on Saturday. The Czech defender, who this week received a full international call-up again, had been rested for Fulham’s midweek League Cup win over former club Middlesbrough.
Things weren’t quite so good for Izzy Brown though as he and Rotherham were beaten 4-0 at Barnsley, playing 83 minutes on a forgettable afternoon all round.
In League Two, Jordan Houghton’s Doncaster Rovers have put together three wins on the spin to move into third place and did so with a 4-1 win over Yeovil on Saturday. Houghton got a full match and also earned the public admiration of manager Darren Ferguson for his performances in what he described as ‘one of the most important roles in the team’.
Alex Kiwomya’s penchant for the spectacular almost continued this week as he was involved in Crewe’s topsy-turvy League Cup exit at Blackburn before things fell flat in a 2-0 defeat at Cheltenham. It was a similarly frustrating day for Crawley, losing 3-1 at home to Notts County with Alex Davey getting ninety minutes and Mitchell Beeney an unused substitute.
Jamal Blackman was on the losing side as Wycombe were beaten 2-0 by Colchester, with former blue Sam Walker in the visiting goal.
Germany
To say Michael Hector has had an unfortunate start to his career at Eintracht Frankfurt would be an understatement. Despite playing well in both of his matches so far, he’s managed to pick up a red card in each of them, and this weekend’s indiscretion came in their Bundesliga opener against Baba Rahman’s Schalke. The Ghanaian came on for the closing half an hour as Eintracht ran out 1-0 winners despite Hector’s early bath.
RED CARD
Michael Hector sent off for a last man challenge (79').#SGES04 #Eintracht— Eintracht Frankfurt (@eintracht_eng) August 27, 2016
Andreas Christensen and Borussia Mönchengladbach booked their place in the Champions League group stages this week by beating Young Boys 6-1 (courtesy of a hat-trick from Thorgan Hazard, who used to grace these very pages), and their reward is a daunting group featuring Barcelona, Manchester City and Celtic. They also faced a tricky first match up in the league as Leverkusen came to town but Christensen played well in a 1-0 win, overcoming a first-half penalty shout against him to put in a typically assured performance overall.
Guten Morgen! Habt ihr eure Reisen bereits gebucht? #UCLDraw pic.twitter.com/lIYvHqi5DT
— Borussia (@borussia) August 26, 2016
Spain
Charly Musonda was once again left on the bench by Gustavo Poyet for Betis against Deportivo; he came on during the second half and changed the tempo for the hosts, although he was often rather wasteful in possession, and the match finished 0-0.
Victorien Angban was an unused substitute for Granada at Las Palmas.
Netherlands
Bertrand Traore was sharp and lively as Ajax strolled to a 3-0 win at Go Ahead Eagles, winning a first-half penalty and looking very comfortable throughout. It was a different story in midweek though as he was part of a terrible team performance away to Rostov; a 4-1 defeat denying them a Champions League place and consigning them to the Europa League.
Lewis Baker and Nathan had very quiet evenings for Vitesse on Friday in a dull 1-1 draw at home to Utrecht. Baker played in a more advanced role and was useful at times but Nathan spent much of the night isolated on the left, eventually being replaced in the 70th minute.
Danilo Pantic is still awaiting work permit clearance before featuring for Excelsior.
Belgium
There’s still no debut for Matej Delač at Mouscron, he was on the bench in their 2-1 defeat at Lokeren on Saturday. With just three points from five games, a change might be on the cards…
Colombia
Joao Rodriguez did not feature for Santa Fe against River Plate in the Recopa Sudamericana but will be in the matchday squad for Monday’s league match against Millionarios.
Brazil
Wallace was absent from the Gremio squad that won 1-0 at Atlético Paranaense this week.