It’s all happening on the Chelsea loan front these days and, with seven goals to bring you from this weekend – five scored by Englishmen no less – there’s no shortage of headlines to be made.
Headliners
Let’s start with Tammy Abraham. He’s been front and centre so far with six goals in all competitions heading into Bristol City’s midweek trip to Sheffield Wednesday and, at Hillsborough, he made sure his star continued to shine with a first-half brace.
Unfortunately for him and City, they let that two-goal lead slip to a 3-2 defeat, but he was in good-if-not-goalscoring form on Saturday in a 1-1 draw with Derby to bounce back. In between, he was the subject of attention from The Guardian and the BBC as everyone wants a piece of one of the premier young English forwards around.
Tammy Abraham: the brightest light among Chelsea’s 38 loan stars. Nice piece by @benfisherj #bcfc #cfc https://t.co/VGoEI5aa8R
— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) September 16, 2016
A number of his young Chelsea team-mates are doing their best to join him in the national attention though. Kasey Palmer made good on just his second league start for Huddersfield by scoring the opening goal in their 2-1 win at home to Queens Park Rangers. It set the ball rolling on a superb individual performance that drew plaudits from the Terriers fans.
A little later on Saturday afternoon, Charlie Colkett came off the bench for Bristol Rovers to slam home a late equaliser at Bradford in a game which had briefly been suspended because of a drone flying over the stadium. It was Colkett’s third late substitute appearance for the Gas and it was his first goal in senior football.
Not to be outdone, Lewis Baker scored with this emphatic finish in Vitesse’s 2-0 win at home to Go Ahead Eagles:
It wasn’t the most memorable of matches but Baker was involved in some decent play and, at the very least, better than Nathan, who was substituted after 45 ineffective minutes. Matt Miazga was an unused substitute.
Elsewhere, the Europa League got underway on Thursday and it brought with it two more goals for your enjoyment. Bertrand Traore grabbed his first for Ajax in a tempestuous fixture away to Panathinaikos (in which the young forward eventually limped off with a hamstring injury), whilst Baba Rahman scored the only goal during Schalke’s 1-0 win away to Nice.
England
It’s still slow going for the three young Blues at Premier League clubs with neither Nathan Aké (Bournemouth) or Kenedy (Watford) able to get off the bench this weekend. Patrick Bamford did for Burnley but they were already 3-0 down at Leicester and any impact he might’ve been able to have was thus negated. Loic Remy is, of course, still out through injury.
Tomas Kalas helped Fulham to a pair of draws against Burton and Wigan this week, the latter another clean sheet, whilst Lucas Piazon was an unused substitute in both and is still awaiting his debut there.
Izzy Brown continues to impress at Rotherham. He picked up an assist in each of his two outings this week against Nottingham Forest and Blackburn and was named Man of the Match in the former.
Manager Alan Stubbs offered up plenty of praise for his young forward this week and, after a tricky year at Vitesse last term, Brown is trending upwards again.
AS on Brown| "I'm really pleased with the way he's performing. I think there's plenty more to come and we've scratched the surface."
— Rotherham United (@RotherhamUnited) September 16, 2016
Christian Atsu made his Newcastle debut as a second-half substitute during their 6-0 mauling of QPR; the Ghanaian claimed an assist and hit the crossbar in a decent opening cameo for the Magpies. It earned him half an hour more at home to Wolves on Saturday but a 2-0 defeat wasn’t quite as anyone planned.
In League Two, Alex Kiwomya suffered a dislocated shoulder in the dying moments of Crewe’s win at Grimsby on Saturday and is set for a spell on the sidelines, which is undoubtedly a blow to a player who had quickly established himself as one of the most dangerous forwards in the division.
Crewe have been flying high so far this season in no small part due to Kiwomya’s contributions but Doncaster Rovers have been just as good and remain second in the league after a 2-0 win at home to Newport County this weekend. Jordan Houghton got his customary 90 minutes doing the dirty work in midfield to allow his attacking team-mates to do what they do best, and he too has played a significant role in their early-season successes.
Jamal Blackman was Man of the Match in Wycombe’s 1-0 win over Stevenage but Mitchell Beeney played no part for Crawley in their 2-0 win over Luton. Alex Davey was an 87th-minute substitute for former blue Billy Clifford.
Dion Conroy made his Aldershot debut away to Boreham Wood in midweek and retained his place for the trip to Southport four days later. He helped the Shots to a pair of 1-1 draws, extending their unbeaten run to six matches.
Nathan Baxter was the penalty hero for Met Police in their 4-3 shootout victory over Hendon in the Alan Turvey Trophy on Tuesday but he couldn’t help them to FA Cup success at the weekend as they were beaten 2-1 at Eastbourne Borough. He did, however, pull off a reportedly outstanding save to deny Nathaniel Pinney in the first half.
Germany
It was an interesting week for Andreas Christensen and Borussia Mönchengladbach as their Champions League trip to Manchester City was delayed by 24 hours due to heavy rain. They eventually lost 4-0 and the Dane was often exposed in a poor team defensive performance, but they were able to bounce back nicely on Saturday with a 4-1 hammering of Werder Bremen.
Baba Rahman returned to Bundesliga action after his Europa League goalscoring antics by starting away to Hertha Berlin but a 2-0 defeat left a rather sour taste in the month at the end of things.
Michael Hector remains suspended for Eintracht Frankfurt.
Spain
The big game in Spain, from our point of view at least, was Friday night’s potential showdown of Jeremie Boga’s Granada against Charly Musonda’s Real Betis. In the end it produced a wonderfully entertaining match but a damp squib from a loanee point of view: Boga was an unused substitute whilst Musonda came on ten minutes before half time to play a part in their two-goal comeback.
The real development of note, however, was the Granada debut of Victorien Angban. Entering as a 56th-minute substitute to shore things up in the wake of a red card, he displayed composure and authority in midfield to hopefully earn more looks under manager Paco Jemez.
Italy
Juan Cuadrado didn’t feature for Juventus in either their Champions League draw with Sevilla or Sunday’s Serie A Derby d’Italia against Inter.
Mario Pašalić was an unused substitute for Milan at Sampdoria.
Netherlands
Traore’s injury wasn’t enough to keep him from featuring for Ajax against Heracles on Sunday, he got 83 minutes in a 2-0 in.
Danilo Pantic made his Excelsior debut as a half-time substitute in a 1-1 draw at Willem II.
Belgium
Cristian Cuevas is quickly back into the swing of things for Sint-Truiden, slotting in and getting ninety minutes as they beat Waasland-Beveren 4-1. Elsewhere there was finally a debut for Matej Delač at Royal Excel Mouscron and the change produced a first win in six for them as they defeated Westerlo 3-1. Islam Feruz was an unused substitute.
Turkey
It’s two clean sheets in two games for Kenneth Omeruo and Super Lig newcomers Alanyaspor as they recorded a very impressive 3-0 win over Trabzonspor. He’s slotted into an all-African back four also featuring Lamine Gassama, Abdoulaye Ba and Fabrice N’Sakala and it promises to be a tough group to breach.
Brazil
There was no Wallace for Gremio again this week as it approaches a full month since he last played.
Colombia
Joao Rodriguez similarly didn’t play for Santa Fe this week and it will be one month tomorrow (Monday) since he last made a competitive first-team appearance.