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As we're nearing the winter break in many leagues, several Chelsea players continue to push their squads toward silverware. There were lots of highlights from our youngsters loaned across Europe this past week, here's how they fared:
- Thibaut Courtois (Atletico Madrid) - Courtois bounced back from his Champions League error with a relatively uneventful clean sheet. Unfortunately for Chelsea fans tuning in to catch the performance, Atletico games have become as boring and predictable as Real Madrid or Barcelona fixtures.
- Marko Marin (Sevilla) - Like the real Messi, the German Messi is currently broken.
- Oriol Romeu (Valencia) - Romeu was rewarded for an excellent Europa League tie last week with a start over the weekend. For the second match in a row, the Chelsea midfielder was outstanding. Here's hoping he's finally shaking off the rust due to the long term knee injury suffered last season, and that he'll be getting back to his best in short order.
- Matej Delac (FK Vojvodina) - Delac is still out with injury and was not involved in any matches this week.
- Lucas Piazon (Vitesse Arnhem) - Piazon registered another assist this weekend before making way for Gael Kakuta after 71 minutes of play. All in all, it was another excellent game from the Brazilian.
- Cristian Cuevas (Vitesse Arnhem) - As usual, Cuevas continues to work with the Vitesse reserves.
- Christian Atsu (Vitesse Arnhem) - Atsu continued to start in an attack-minded midfield role, and had another solid showing overall. His set piece delivery has been better than expected, and an excellent corner led to the second Vitesse goal of the weekend despite not qualifying as an assist.
- Sam Hutchinson (Vitesse Arnhem) - Hutchinson started this weekend's game on the bench, and went unused in the 3-0 victory.
- Patrick van Aanholt (Vitesse Arnhem) - There really isn't too much to say about PvA that hasn't been said dozens of times already. He started, played 90 minutes, and generally looked excellent this past weekend.
- Gael Kakuta (Vitesse Arnhem) - As mentioned earlier, Kakuta came on for the game's final 20 minutes in place of Lucas Piazon. Like his Chelsea teammate, he registered an assist in his time on the pitch.
- Stipe Perica (NAC Breda) - Perica continues to start most matches on the bench, but found the back of the net for the fourth time this season despite not playing for the full 90. Perica was introduced in the 65th minute this weekend, and made the NAC lead 2-0 within 10 minutes of coming on. Aside from the goal it was a quiet performance from Perica, as NAC had very little of the ball as the clock wound down.
- Wallace (Inter Milan) - The Brazilian fullback was his usual unused self over the weekend, but started in yesterday's Coppa Italia tie against Trapani. While it was nice to see the youngster finally getting some minutes, his performance probably didn't do enough to warrant him seeing many more anytime in the near future. The best thing for Wallace probably remains a move to a league where he'll see regular action, as match experience is probably more important than quality of competition at this point.
- Thorgan Hazard (Zulte Waregem) - Hazard had one of the least impressive games of his loan spell this past weekend, as his side struggled in a 1-1 draw. He was rested in yesterday's cup tie, remaining an unused sub in the 3-0 victory.
- Ulises Davila (Cordoba) - Davila started against Barcelona B on Saturday, playing the full 90 minutes of the 2-1 loss. His shooting left something to be desired in that game.
- Jhon Pirez (CD Leganes) - Pirez made another late cameo this weekend, coming on in the 77th minute of a 2-0 victory.
