The streak of a Chelsea loanee scoring in every single full, non-international break, week of the 2016-17 season so far continued this week with three more strikes to take us to 42 overall for the campaign. We begin with a player who, despite being contracted to the Blues, might not actually ever come back.
Headliners
The nature of Juan Cuadrado’s three-year loan deal to Juventus makes it highly likely that the Italian champions will land him full-time for anywhere between €15m and €25m. If he plays a certain number of matches, they will be obligated to complete such a deal, but for the time being he remains one of the loan army, and so we can bring you his fine individual goal against Lyon in the Champions League this midweek.
Cuadrado: “It worked” https://t.co/MTrFtAb44P
— James Horncastle (@JamesHorncastle) October 18, 2016
He was back on the bench for the Serie A clash with Milan on Saturday but was pressed into early action when Paulo Dybala went off injured. Operating in a more attacking capacity than he usually does out on the right, he and Juventus were frustrated in a 1-0 defeat.
The rest of our headlines are devoted to Bristol Rovers and, specifically, Charlie Colkett and Jake Clarke-Salter. The duo found themselves in the spotlight this week first for the parts they played in helping Darrell Clarke’s side to a 3-3 draw away to MK Dons, and then for grabbing a goal apiece away to Oldham on Saturday.
In the former of those outings, this delightfully stylish backheel from Colkett played Clarke-Salter in, and the young centre-back – starting just his second match for Rovers – squared to give Matt Taylor the second of his three goals on the evening.
https://twitter.com/nathctml/status/788551809157722112
At Oldham, Colkett started with Clarke-Salter on the bench, but the duo struck either side of half time to shoot the Gas up to fifth in League One.
England
That was the best of an otherwise frustrating week for most of those stationed elsewhere in England. Patrick Bamford was the only one of the four Premier League loanees to see any action and that amounted to just a minute plus stoppage time for Burnley at home to Everton. Nathan Aké was an unused substitute for Bournemouth against Tottenham, Kenedy was not involved at all for Watford, and Loic Remy is still injured and unable to contribute for Crystal Palace.
Tammy Abraham’s run of three matches without a goal is officially his longest of the season, a remarkable statistic in itself, but his overall performance level has still been high and, after a 1-0 defeat to QPR in midweek, Bristol City beat Blackburn 1-0 on Saturday to remain firmly in a playoff place.
Huddersfield lost 3-1 at Preston with Kasey Palmer getting the last 25 minutes from the bench, but he did then get his first full ninety minutes of the season in the 1-0 win over Derby at the weekend, claiming the home side’s Man of the Match award.
Lucas Piazon played the majority of Fulham’s draw with Norwich and defeat at Aston Villa, but Tomas Kalas remains injured and is hopeful of returning to training this week. Christian Atsu, meanwhile, saw a few minutes as a sub in each of Newcastle’s wins over Barnsley and Ipswich as they remain top of the table. Finally, Izzy Brown got 90 minutes in Alan Stubbs’ last match in charge of Rotherham on Tuesday; the defeat to Birmingham earned him his leaving papers, and new manager Kenny Jackett only used the England Under-20 forward as a second-half substitute at home to Reading on Saturday.
Down in League Two, Jordan Houghton and Doncaster suffered a rare and heavy 4-2 defeat at Blackpool, and there was similar frustrating for Jamal Blackman at Wycombe as the Chairboys went down 2-0 at home to Barnet. Defeat also came about for Alex Kiwomya on his return to Crewe’s starting eleven as the Alex were beaten 1-0 by Yeovil Town. Crawley, at least, took a point from their home fixture with Accrington, but Alex Davey played just 22 minutes with Mitchell Beeney again not involved.
Dion Conroy didn’t play for Aldershot away to Torquay after suffering a cut foot in training, but Nathan Baxter helped Met Police to a midweek win away to Havant & Waterlooville, but went down to a 3-2 defeat at Staines on Saturday.
Netherlands
It was derby weekend in the Netherlands with NEC Nijmegen vs Vitesse Arnhem capturing the Chelsea attention. Lewis Baker and Matt Miazga played the full 90 minutes and Nathan got twenty from the bench in an eventful match which saw Vitesse surrender a lead in the last minute for the second week in succession. Baker was at the centre of most of the big talking points, significantly for being pelted with missiles from the crowd when trying to take a corner, leading to the referee suspending play for five minutes until things settled down.
He also had a goal correctly disallowed for offside with practically the last kick of the match, but was otherwise up and down in another all action performance. Miazga defended well for the post part, and Nathan was quiet bar one solo run soon after coming on.
Bertrand Traore started on the right of a front three for Ajax in De Klassikier away to Feyenoord and helped become the first team to take a point off from their hosts in the Eredivisie this season. It wasn’t one of his better performances and, off the back of a similar outing in the Europa League at Celta Vigo on Thursday, will have caused a little more frustration for those who want to see him play through the middle as a centre-forward.
Danilo Pantic returned from suspension to play half an hour of Excelsior’s defeat at home to PEC Zwolle.
Germany
Things have taken a concerning turn for Andreas Christensen, who this week was ruled out for up to two months with what Borussia Mönchengladbach/A German Team have described as ‘a gluteal injury’. That meant the Danish defender missed their win over Celtic in the Champions League and the 2-0 Bundesliga defeat at Bayern Munich.
The #Fohlenelf will be without Andreas #Christensen for the foreseeable future. The defender suffered a gluteal injury against @HSV. pic.twitter.com/XrTc3Ok05E
— Gladbach (@borussia_en) October 17, 2016
Baba Rahman played the entirety of Schalke’s Europa League win at Krasnodar before getting ten minutes as a sub in a 3-0 win over Mainz in the league on Sunday.
Michael Hector was an unused substitute for Eintracht Frankfurt at Hamburg.
Spain
It didn’t get a whole lot better over in La Liga, where Victorien Angban was the sole starter for Granada in their 0-0 draw with Sporting Gijon. He appears to be establishing himself in the holding midfield role, but Jeremie Boga was left out of the matchday squad again and his situation is particularly worrying when considering his undeniable technical talent.
Charly Musonda hasn’t had that good of a time over at Betis either but this weekend was sidelined through injury rather than the whims of Gustavo Poyet.
Italy
Mario Pašalić is still awaiting a Milan debut and was an unused substitute against Juventus again this weekend.
Belgium
Mouscron lost 2-0 at Mechlen on Saturday; Matej Delač playing the full match in goal and Islam Feruz receiving ten minutes from the bench. Cristian Cuevas did get ninety minutes for Sint-Truiden but they suffered a late defeat at Gent.
Turkey
Kenneth Omeruo played the full 90 for Alanyaspor in a 2-0 home defeat by Bursaspor.
Brazil
Wallace lives! He got 90 minutes and an assist for Gremio away to Santos on Monday evening, but was an unused substitute on Thursday at Palmeiras. Still, progress!
Colombia
No such luck for Joao Rodriguez at Sante Fe, who appear to have forgotten about him.