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- Romelu Lukaku (West Bromwich Albion): Lukaku played the final 27 minutes as West Brom won again. He had an up and down performance against QPR. He won every header he contested in his cameo, and looked very good in that regard for the second straight match. He kept getting caught offside though (3 times this weekend), something that needs to improve going forward. There are also reports floating around that Lukaku has been trying to play through his ankle injury, and may need to take some time off.
- Yossi Benayoun (West Ham United): Yossi started the game against Arsenal on the bench. Yossi finished the game against Arsenal on the bench.
- Thibaut Courtois (Atletico Madrid): Courtois got a rest mid-week as Atletico gave Sergio Asenjo another Europa League start, but was in net when Atletico defeated Malaga 2-1 in a huge La Liga game this weekend. Atletico are currently level on points with Barcelona atop the table, and trail them on GD by two.
- Michael Essien (Real Madrid): Essien was involved in a pair of games for Real Madrid this week. He started the game and played 78 minutes in the Champions League game against Ajax midweek, and he came on for the last few seconds of Sunday's El Clasico. It's hard to take much out of Sunday's cameo, but I wasn't overly impressed by what I saw from Essien against Ajax. He was on the pitch, but he didn't really do too much.
- Kevin De Bruyne (Werder Bremen): De Bruyne made some noise on the weekend with his comments about life in Germany, but he continues to be Werder Bremen's best player on the pitch. He found the back of the net again (this one was fluky), and some very aggressive passing led to a few other chances for Bremen in the 3-1 loss. He does need to work on the defensive side of his game, as he seems a bit slow to recognize what's going on around him in the center of the pitch.
- Jeffrey Bruma (Hamburger SV): Bruma was recovered enough to make a brief cameo over the weekend, but there wasn't really much to take from his five minutes or so on the pitch. What his role is after the break will be interesting, as HSV actually won several games while he was out with injury.
- Milan Lalkovic (Vitoria SC): Lalkovic was an unused substitute, so nothing new to report from Portugal.
- Matej Delac (Vitoria SC): Like Lalkovic, Delac was unused over the weekend. Unlike Lalkovic, there doesn't appear to be much chance of Delac seeing minutes going forward.
- Tomas Kalas (Vitesse Arnhem): Kalas played 74 minutes in Vitesse's 3-3 draw with Heerenveen, and it was probably his worst game since moving to right back. He did look pretty good going forward, but he looked slow to see the play developing defensively.
- Patrick van Aanholt (Vitesse Arnhem): PvA played the full 90 for Vitesse, and was very solid looking in attack. While the defense as a whole was poor, it's hard to fault PvA much from an individual perspective.
- Gael Kakuta (Vitesse Arnhem): Kakuta again made the bench and was not used. Reports during the week made it appear a bit doubtful he'd be fit enough to make the bench.
- Kenneth Omeruo (ADO Den Haag): The Nigerian was excellent in a 1-1 draw against NEC. He's been far more aggressive with his tackling in his second season in the Eredivisie, and he's been doing a nice job of bombing forward this year as well.
- Amin Affane (Roda JC): Affane got 11 minutes of action against VVV, but was fairly quiet in his short time on the pitch. His side were already up by three when he came on, so they weren't exactly throwing numbers forward.
- Thorgan Hazard (Zulte-Waregem): Hazard was awesome again this weekend, as Zulte have put together an impressive start to the season. He played 63 minutes on the left wing as Zulte moved level on points with RSC Anderlecht, and jumped ahead of Genk.
- Josh McEachran (Middlesbrough): Josh has been excellent thus far on his loan spell. He played 64 minutes in a midweek draw with Derby before playing the full 90 in a 2-1 victory over Nathaniel Chalobah and Watford. I managed to see both games, and Josh looks like he'd be more than capable of contributing in some form for Chelsea. While it's probably best for Josh to be getting all the minutes he can right now, I could see a January recall if some sort of major injury struck our midfield.
- Sam Hutchinson (Nottingham Forest): Sam is still suffering from a knee injury, and given his history it's probably for the best that Forest are being extremely conservative with him.
- Ben Gordon (Birmingham City): Gordon again failed to make Birmingham's 18 man squad for the weekend. It's getting close to time to recall Gordon from his loan spell, as he probably gains more from playing with the U21 squad in London than he does watching Birmingham games from the stands.
- Nathaniel Chalobah (Watford): Chalobah played 90 minutes in a pair of fixtures this week, a 2-1 victory over Charlton and the 2-1 loss to Josh and Boro. I didn't get to see the Charlton game, but boy was Chalobah impressive against Boro. A report from the Charlton game can be found here, and the Boro game here.
- Ulises Davila (CE Sabadell): Davila again started on the bench, but got onto the pitch with 19 minutes to play against Ponferradina. He looked good in attack, but has a lot of work to do on the defensive side of his game.
- Sam Walker (Bristol Rovers): Chelsea have not officially recalled Walker yet, and he was the backup goalkeeper at Bristol over the weekend.
- Jhon Pirez (Leganes): As usual, Pirez did not play.
