The early-season goalscoring form on the Chelsea loan front continued in earnest this week with Alex Kiwomya weighing in with a brace and Lewis Baker notching his first of the campaign in another productive seven days.
Headliners
Kiwomya deserves to steal the headlines though as he continues to make good on his third spell away from Cobham. Nondescript stays at Barnsley and Fleetwood brought about several question marks concerning the 19 year-old’s development, but a summer switch to Crewe Alexandra has suddenly sparked him into life.
An opening-day goal (and assist) at Stevenage set him up well and goals against Hartlepool and Newport County this week have well and truly done the trick. Against Hartlepool he started with another helper for Alex’s first goal before finding the back of the net himself, although he did then later cost his team a goal when allowing former blue Carl Magnay to equalise, and then at Newport on Saturday he pulled out an early contender for goal of the season.
Baker, meanwhile, was taking advantage of playing in a more advanced role to grab the first goal of his second year at Vitesse. Making a run in behind, he collected a long, hopeful ball, and managed to squeeze home at the near post to ensure all three points went back to Arnhem courtesy of the 1-0 win.
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He was otherwise slightly less influential for Henk Fraser’s team as he saw less of the ball further up the pitch but it was a dull affair in which he was the decisive factor. Nathan played the first half before being withdrawn in favour of 16 year-old Mitchell van Bergen.
England
Nathan Aké made his Bournemouth debut as a late substitute in their trip to West Ham. Brought on in the closing stages as the ten-man Cherries tried to hold onto a goalless draw, he couldn’t help prevent Michail Antonio from scoring a late winner and ensuring Eddie Howe’s boys suffered a second defeat in as many matches.
Tammy Abraham started a pair of Bristol City matches but found the step up in opposition a little too testing to extend his impressive goalscoring start at Ashton Gate. Taking on newly-relegated Norwich and Newcastle will have been a great test of his credentials at this stage of his career and, although he didn’t score, he proved more than a handful for some very capable defenders.
Kasey Palmer was an unused substitute for Huddersfield at Aston Villa but came on against Barnsley as manager David Wagner continues to utilise him to make an impact from the bench as the Terriers remain unbeaten.
Izzy Brown made his Rotherham United debut on Saturday against Brentford and impressed, hitting the crossbar and providing an attacking spark for Alan Stubbs’ side in a 1-0 win.
Tomas Kalas and Fulham had a pair of draws this week against Leeds (1-1) and Cardiff (2-2) with the Czech international playing every second of both matches as he builds his partnership at the back with Michael Madl. He might’ve been braver to deny Chris Wood a spectacular last-ditch equaliser in the former of those matches but, in all honesty, not many players would put themselves in the way of such an attempt.
Alex Davey has quickly become a first choice at the heart of Crawley’s defence and played well in games against Accrington? and Barnet this week, recovering from a mistake which allowed John Akinde to score in the latter fixture to help secure a point.
Mitchell Beeney remains on backup duty for Dermot Drummy’s side but another goalkeeper, Jamal Blackman, has been thrown into action at Wycombe this week and has adapted quickly to his new surroundings. His debut came on Tuesday night in a 1-1 draw at home to Accrington Stanley and he followed that up with a clean sheet away to Blackpool, helping the Chairboys to a goalless draw and a valuable point on their travels.
Jordan Houghton and Doncaster beat Cambridge and Cheltenham each by a goal to nil this week, strengthening their early record, and the 20 year-old midfielder once again featured across the duration of both matches.
Spain
Jeremie Boga kicked off the new La Liga season with a generally promising ninety minutes for Granada at home to Villarreal. Starting out on the left wing, he was quiet at times but defensively diligent and, when he was moved into a more central role late in the game, he began to influence things more. That coincided with Granada’s best spell and there were one or two moments that suggested that he could grow into a very handy player for Paco Jemez this season.
Jeremie Boga last night making La Liga debut.
Typically, here he is taking on half the opposition. @BogaJeremie pic.twitter.com/ddDYuDspW5— Follow @ChelseaLoans (@ChelseaLoansVid) August 21, 2016
Victorien Angban was an unused substitute having only received clearance to join up with the club this week.
Charly Musonda was a second half substitute for Real Betis away to Barcelona, possibly in part due to a pre-season hamstring complaint and also due to the nature of the challenge ahead of them. Gus Poyet’s side were handed a 6-2 thrashing; perhaps Charly was better off out of it…
Germany
The new Bundesliga season officially kicks off next weekend but the early rounds of the Cup officially opened the new season for the Chelsea trio plying their trade in the country.
For Andreas Christensen, it was a weekend off as an unused substitute having helped Borussia Mönchengladbach to a 3-1 first leg victory over Young Boys in their midweek Champions League qualifier. They’ll hope to seal a group stage berth back at the Borussia Park this coming week.
Baba Rahman played 72 minutes for Schalke in a comfortable 4-1 win over FC Villingen, but Michael Hector‘s Eintracht Frankurt debut was less successful as he picked up a pair of yellow cards to be sent off in extra time away to FC Magdeburg. Eintracht prevailed on penalties but it wasn’t the most auspicious of starts for the Jamaican defender.
Netherlands
Away from Vitesse, our interest now takes us to opposite ends of the Eredivisie spectrum. Bertrand Traore‘s first two starts in an Ajax shirt proved more than a little frustrating as a 1-1 draw at home to Rostov dented their hopes of reaching the Champions League group stages, and a weekend defeat at home to Willem II was not the prescribed result for Peter Bosz’s side. He was sharp enough in both matches but lacks cohesion with the rest of the team having only spent a week there, and is at least already their first-choice centre forward.
Danilo Pantic will be tasked with the rather different ask of helping Excelsior to avoid relegation but was unable to make his debut this weekend as he is in the process of finalising paperwork after joining on a season-long loan.
Belgium
Matej Delač continues to wait for his first appearance in a Royal Excel Mouscron shirt, playing second fiddle to Vagner in their 2-1 win over Sint-Truiden on Saturday.
Colombia
Joao Rodriguez featured for the last half an hour as Santa Fe drew 0-0 with River Plate in Colombian League action on Friday.
Brazil
Wallace started and played the first half for Gremio away to Flamengo but was substituted at half time en route to a 2-1 defeat.