The Christmas edition of the Loan Reports bears gifts for all, with goals from the wise men of Tenerife, Sheffield Wednesday, and Aston Villa. Our festive story begins in Birmingham.
Headliners
Tammy Abraham is officially the most in-form goalscorer in English football. His 9th goal in his last eight appearances came in the early stages of Aston Villa’s big Sunday clash against Leeds, and looked to have set Dean Smith’s side on the path to three much-needed points. He ended up on the losing side, however, as Leeds (for whom Lewis Baker was an unused substitute and Izzy Brown missed out with a new hamstring injury) claimed a last-minute 3-2 win.
9 – Tammy Abraham has scored nine goals in eight league appearances since the start of November; more than any other player within the top four tiers of English league football. Star. pic.twitter.com/RNgxeurlkh
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 23, 2018
Joao Rodriguez, by comparison, has been less prolific since swapping Mexico’s second tier for Spain’s, but he finally got off the mark for Tenerife with a last-minute equaliser at home to Granada on Saturday.
Michael Hector also notched his first goal of the season – and his first for anyone in more than a year – to give managerless Sheffield Wednesday a win over Preston.
England
Premier League
Kurt Zouma retained his starting place for Everton against Tottenham but the Toffees were on the wrong end of a 6-2 hiding.
Kenedy came on for the last twenty minutes of Newcastle’s goalless draw against Fulham.
Championship
Mason Mount grabbed an assist for Derby in a 1-1 draw against Tomas Kalas’ Bristol City, and was also named the man of the match, which was a fine way to bounce back from a spell of indifferent form that had still earned him the support of manager Frank Lampard.
Frank Lampard on Mason Mount –
”I think you can easily pick up on he hasn't scored for a while, I get that one. He had an injury and is not at his absolute best, but he is a top young player and we have to accept every player is going to have little periods.
He will come good” pic.twitter.com/rZIiquRDd7
— Simon Phillips (@siphillipssport) December 19, 2018
Fikayo Tomori was also involved from start to finish, but Jay Dasilva was an unused substitute.
Trevoh Chalobah again caught the eye as Ipswich earned a creditable 1-1 draw at home to Sheffield United, and Reece James performed to his usual impressive standards despite Wigan’s 3-0 defeat at home to Birmingham City.
Todd Kane helped Hull beat Swansea 3-2 with another dependable ninety minutes at right back, but Kasey Palmer wasn’t able to help Blackburn beat promotion favourites Norwich with a half-hour cameo from the bench that represented his biggest involvement for nearly two months.
League One
Brad Collins celebrated what was probably the highlight of his career to date in midweek when he kept a clean sheet to help Burton beat Middlesbrough 1-0 and advance to the League Cup Semi Final, where they’ll play Manchester City.
Everyone came back down to earth on Saturday with a 2-0 defeat at Luton Town.
Dujon Sterling played ninety minutes as Coventry City lost 1-0 to Shrewsbury Town, for whom Charlie Colkett was an unused substitute, while Iké Ugbo came on at half time during Scunthorpe’s 2-0 defeat to Bradford.
League Two
Nathan Baxter, who was fit enough to return to Yeovil’s bench this weekend after a recent hip ailment, celebrated signing a new long-term contract at Chelsea this week.
https://twitter.com/NathanBaxterGK/status/1076168998759354368
Jacob Maddox’s recent injury issues kept him out of Cheltenham’s goalless draw at Swindon.
Spain
Michy Batshuayi played the last fifteen minutes of Valencia’s win against Huesca.
Kenneth Omeruo and Leganés extended their unbeaten run to nine matches but will be disappointed to have dropped two points to Sevilla with a last-minute equaliser.
Josi Quintero was an unused substitute for Lleida against Atlético Baleares.
Netherlands
Eduardo and Jake Clarke-Salter played all of Vitesse’s 2-2 draw at De Graafschap, a result that moves them up to fifth in the table.
Kyle Scott and Fankaty Dabo are still out injured.
Italy
Ola Aina continues to impress for Torino, who are expected to make a concerted effort to sign him permanently in January, and was only denied a match-winning last-minute assist by the intervention of VAR against Sassuolo.
Tiémoué Bakayoko was sent off for a pair of bookings in midweek against Bologna and served his suspension in Milan’s defeat to Fiorentina on Saturday.
Mario Pašalić was an unused substitute in Atalanta’s 3-1 defeat at Genoa.
France
Matt Miazga was an unused substitute in Nantes’ 1-0 defeat to PSG while Victorien Angban and Metz had the weekend off after their match against Nancy was postponed.
Germany
Baba Rahman played no part for Schalke against Leverkusen and will leave them in search of pastures new next month.
Belgium
Kylian Hazard was substituted at half time in Cercle Brugge’s heavy 4-1 defeat at Gent on Friday.
Scotland
Ruben Sammut played all of Falkirk’s 2-1 defeat at Dundee United.
Serbia
The Serbian league is now on a winter break so there has been no action for Danilo Pantic.
Brazil
It’s the off-season in Brazil so Nathan hasn’t been in action either.
Statistics
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