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- Romelu Lukaku (West Bromwich Albion): The big fella got about 15 minutes on Sunday, and was pretty involved from the second he set foot on the pitch. It was a pretty dull game, but his movement and energy really were notable in his time on the pitch. That's not something I thought I'd write often about Lukaku a year ago.
- Yossi Benayoun (West Ham United): Yossi was still out injured for West Ham, although there have been rumors that the club would like to make the deal permanent in January. That would be fine with me.
- Thibaut Courtois (Atletico Madrid): Courtois was going to get tested this weekend, as all keepers do when heading to Barcelona. I thought he did fairly well despite allowing four goals, as most of them were just nothing he could really should have been expected to save. The truly sad part of the result is that the La Liga "title race" is now effectively over.
- Michael Essien (Real Madrid): Essien played 65 minutes in a mid-week cup loss to Celta Vigo before being unused in the 2-2 draw with Espanyol. He was his (now) usual solid but unspectacular self in his time on the pitch, and should certainly be considered for a recall for in January.
- Kevin De Bruyne (Werder Bremen): De Bruyne was immense as Werder drew with Nurnberg on Sunday. His range of passing was excellent, and he managed yet another assist as well as narrowly missing a goal. He was notably better when the opposition has the ball than he usually is, something that is nice to see when considering the fight he'll have to get playing time here.
- Jeffrey Bruma (Hamburger SV): Bruma failed to make much of an impression this weekend, as he was an unused sub in a 3-0 loss. I honestly hope we find him a new home in January, as HSV games just aren't a whole lot of fun to watch.
- Milan Lalkovic (Vitoria SC): Lalkovic was an unused substitute, I'd hope he's recalled and moved in January.
- Matej Delac (Vitoria SC): Delac was a typically unused substitute as well, but I'd think moving him in January is far less of a priority. It might be time to let him look for a permanent move, as that may increase his chances of playing somewhere.
- Tomas Kalas (Vitesse Arnhem): Kalas might have had the best weekend of all the Chelsea youngsters, assisting both Vitesse goals in the 2-2 draw. It was nice to see that he's back to looking like he's one of the best players in the Eredivisie after a short dip in form.
- Patrick van Aanholt (Vitesse Arnhem): PvA was again very good for Vitesse, and probably should have had both a goal and an assist in this game. His lack of first team minutes over the last several seasons still shows occasionally, but he's reminding us all of why he was so highly touted by Ancelotti.
- Gael Kakuta (Vitesse Arnhem): Kakuta had an unusually quiet game, really doing nothing of note for his 65 minutes on the pitch. That's improvement in some ways, as in the past it's either been fantastic or implosion from the Frenchman.
- Kenneth Omeruo (ADO Den Haag): Omeruo played 90 fairly solid minutes as Den Haag lost late to Feyenoord.
- Amin Affane (Roda JC): Affane came off the bench to play about 10 minutes this weekend with very little impact on the game.
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Thorgan Hazard (Zulte-Waregem): Hazard made a cameo appearance mid-week in a cup game before playing the full 90 minutes on the weekend. Both games were against Genk, a club most of us are familiar with by now. Hazard looked good in the 3-2 win on the weekend, notching another assist in the process. Zulte were already down 5-0 when he came on mid-week, but supposedly he was fairly solid in that one as well.
. - Josh McEachran (Middlesbrough): McEachran didn't play in the Capital One Cup tie midweek, but he started and played well in Middlesbrough's victory this weekend. He's certainly playing well enough to make Chelsea consider a recall.
- Sam Hutchinson (Nottingham Forest): Still out injured.
- Ben Gordon (Birmingham City): No closer to the first team than he was a week ago.
- Nathaniel Chalobah (Watford): Chalobah scored Watford's only goal on the weekend, and was his usual solid self for 40 minutes in the midfield. Unfortunately he pick up an injury with about five minutes to go in the first half and had to be subbed off. Here's hoping it's nothing serious.
- Patrick Bamford (MK Dons): Bamford was back in Cobham this week receiving treatment on his injury, but was fit enough to return to training on Friday. There's a good chance we'll see him on the substitutes bench this coming weekend, but he'll almost certainly have lost enough fitness that 90 minutes is out of the question.
- Conor Clifford (Crawley Town): Clifford made the Crawley bench, but was not called upon to play.
- Todd Kane (Preston North End): Kane was not in the 18-man squad this weekend, and there was no indication of whether it was injury related or a coaches decision. He's been seeing regular time, so I wouldn't be too concerned yet.
- Ulises Davila (CE Sabadell): Davila played 90 minutes this weekend, and by all accounts he was very good. I haven't seen anything of that game unfortunately, so I can't give any sort of personal opinion on his showing.
- Sam Walker (Bristol Rovers): Walker started against York, and was on the wrong end of a 4-1 loss. He wasn't as bad as the defenders in front of him, but nobody involved was very good.
- Anjur Osmanovic (Lärje/Angered): Winters in Sweden are long, so he's still on break.
- Jhon Pirez (Leganes): Winters in Sweden...oh, he's in Spain? Whatever. Still didn't play.
