The streak of a Chelsea loanee scoring in every full week of the 2016-17 club season continued over the past seven days thanks to a pair of League Two contributors.
Headliners
The first of those to chip in was a familiar face in Alex Kiwomya, notching his seventh of the campaign for Crewe Alexandra at home to Morecambe in midweek. His equaliser helped them turn around an early deficit and triumph 2-1, but it wasn’t such a happy story on Saturday as the Alex were hammered 4-0 away at Colchester United.
However, Saturday was very good for Jordan Houghton, who scored his first goal in Doncaster Rovers colours against Leyton Orient. The 21 year-old midfielder leads all loanees in minutes played this season as he has anchored the midfield for promotion-chasing Rovers, and he capped another 90 minutes here with the equaliser in a 3-1 win.
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England
Nathan Aké kept his place at centre-back for Bournemouth in a tough away fixture at Arsenal and, despite the 3-1 defeat, he came away having added to his reputation with a fine individual performance.
It was the same old story for Kenedy at Watford and Patrick Bamford at Burnley though, with neither remotely threatening to claim a place in their respective clubs’ matchday squads, and there was also a familiar tale for Loic Remy, who faces another three weeks on the sidelines injured again for Crystal Palace.
Tomas Kalas played the full game as Fulham lost 2-1 at promotion fancies Brighton, with Lucas Piazon playing the last few minutes from the bench. Tammy Abraham and Christian Atsu each played 90 minutes in defeats for Bristol City and Newcastle United respectively, but Izzy Brown claimed an assist in his first start – and 90 minutes – under new Rotherham manager Kenny Jackett in their home defeat to Leeds.
Kasey Palmer and Huddersfield Town take on Wigan Athletic on Monday night.
Bad news from League One this week came in the form of a serious injury to defender Jake Clarke-Salter. He suffered a dislocated elbow and broken forearm in a nasty incident at home to Charlton and faces up to three months on the sidelines. Charlie Colkett was a half-time substitute there before remaining an unused substitute on Saturday away to Chesterfield.
In other League Two notes away from our headliners, Jamal Blackman kept his 7th and 8th clean sheets of the season to help Wycombe to wins over Newport and Hartlepool and up into the playoff places. Crawley beat Grimsby 3-2 but Alex Davey didn’t make it off the bench, whilst Mitchell Beeney didn’t make it onto the bench.
Dion Conroy played a full match in the middle of a back three as Aldershot lost at Sutton United, and Nathan Baxter helped Met Police to a 1-1 draw against Billericay Town in Ryman Premier action.
Spain
Charly Musonda missed Real Betis’ defeat at Elche owing to a lack of match fitness after his recent six-week injury absence, whilst Jeremie Boga and Victorien Angban both missed out on Granada’s trip to Celta Vigo.
Germany
Andreas Christensen took up his usual position at the heart of the Borussia Mönchengladbach defence in a pair of 1-1 draws this week; against Manchester City in the Champions League, and against Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga.
Michael Hector started in midfield for Eintracht Frankfurt and put in an impressive 90-minute shift to help them to a surprising 2-1 win, whilst Baba Rahman was handed a full match in Schalke’s 2-0 Europa League win over French league leaders Nice. He returned to his usual spot on the bench for Sunday’s league win over Darmstadt and didn’t get onto the pitch.
Italy
Juan Cuadrado played 87 minutes of Juventus’ Champions League win at Sevilla before and then all 90 of Sunday’s 3-1 Serie A defeat at Genoa.
Mario Pašalić started just his second match for Milan away to Empili and helped them to a resounding 4-1 win, making way for Mbaye Niang eleven minutes from time.
Netherlands
Vitesse’s frustrating season continued unabated on Saturday night as they only just scraped through to a 2-2 draw at home to Excelsior. Trailing 2-0 after 14 minutes, they rescued a point that leaves them on the fringes of the European places but they have not played well in recent weeks and supporters are growing increasingly frustrated with manager Henk Fraser.
Lewis Baker had one of his quietest games of the season in midfield, Nathan and Matt Miazga were unused substitutes, whilst former Vitesse loanee Danilo Pantic played seven minutes from the bench for the visitors.
Ajax rested Bertrand Traore for their Europa League hammering of Panathinaikos but restored him to the starting lineup for Sunday’s trip to Heerenveen. He didn’t have the best of games though, and limped off injured in stoppage time at the end of the match.
Belgium
Cristian Cuevas played 66 minutes of Sint Truiden’s 1-0 defeat at Lokeren on Saturday, and there were starts for both Matej Delac and Islam Feruz – the striker’s first in the league – for Mouscron at Anderlecht on Sunday. Unfortunately, the good news ends there as Mouscron were hammered 7-0 and Delac had an own goal credited against him to compound the misery.
Turkey
Back from injury, Kenneth Omeruo helped Alanyaspor to a win and a clean sheet as they beat Kayserispor 3-0.
Colombia
Joao Rodriguez doesn’t ever play for Santa Fe.
Brazil
Wallace was an unused substitute as Gremio beat Atlético Mineiro in the Copa do Brasil in midweek.