It was a sleepy Sunday in terms of loan watch action apart from the glorious happenings in Gelderland. But first, let's check on the other loanees who were due to play.
ITALY:
Juan Cuadrado, the darling of Turin, got yet another (impressive) 90 minutes under his belt as Juventus ran out 3-1 winners over Bologna, after conceding an early goal. With rumours of something in the region of €25 million being the amount we're set to receive for him if/when Juventus do exercise their option, this loan is playing quite nicely so far.
Stipe Perica was left on the bench again for Udinese's 1-1 draw with Genoa. He's even worse off than Nathaniel Chalobah, who suffered a similar and all too familiar fate this weekend as well, getting left on the bench for Napoli's 4-0 rout of AC Milan. The pair have played zero and five minutes for their clubs, respectively. Italian loans not involving options to buy have yet to really work out for us...
FRANCE:
Mario Pasalic and Jeremie Boga's respective teams, AS Monaco and Stade Rennais, faced off against each other this weekend. While the former was an unused sub, Boga didn't feature at all, having played for Rennes' reserve side the previous day along fellow summer signing Juan Quintero. Boga scored a penalty for the reserves, in what was probably an attempt to raise his match fitness levels.
OTHERS:
Kenneth Omeruo was omitted from Nigeria's squad for their upcoming round of friendlies and hence it should come as no surprise that he was nowhere to be seen in Kasimpasa's goalless draw with Samuel Eto'o's (!) current home, MP Antalyaspor.
Matej Delac couldn't prevent FK Sarajevo from crashing to a 1-0 defeat against Zeljeznicar. We also found out this week, that Delac definitely has Chelsea DNA.
NETHERLANDS:
We arrive at the pick of this weekend's loan action. Vitesse Arnhem were up against FC Groningen, with many expecting a tough encounter to put Cobham East's home form to the test. But Vitesse didn't mess about and promptly destroyed the visitors 5-0. Certainly their best display of this season so far. Lewis Baker and Dominic Solanke both started, though neither finished the game. Baker, deployed in a deep-lying playmaker role was replaced for the last five minutes by fellow loanee Danilo Pantic. Solanke, as is his habit, got on the scoresheet for his second goal of the season. Both the youngsters who started were quite impressive. Nathan got around ten minutes off the bench and grabbed his second goal of the season as well with an extremely cool, composed finish from close range. Izzy Brown missed out due to injury.
For a detailed match report, look no further than From Arnhem with Love.
Here are the goals!
Dominic Solanke scored his second goal of the season today pic.twitter.com/24wCnTuNVX
— VitesseChelsea (@VitesseCFC) October 4, 2015
Nathan's goal. Such a cool finish pic.twitter.com/IlEZJE8USF
— VitesseChelsea (@VitesseCFC) October 4, 2015
Pantic, too, played a major part in their final goal.
Video of Abiola Dauda's goal for Vittesse vs Groningen earlier today. #MuyiwalawalHighlights pic.twitter.com/xGddupDraS
— MuyiwaLawal Report24 (@MuyiwaLawal) October 4, 2015
Well done, all around.