Chelsea Loan Round-up: Goals from Abraham, Traore, Boga, Pasalic, Van Ginkel; Christensen sets pass record; others

Tammy Abraham started in Bristol City's 2-0 and 5-0 losses to Brentford and Preston, respectively, but despite Bristol City’s continually stuttering form, their fellow relegation strugglers have been just as poor, hence somehow leaving them just above the danger zone, in 21st place. City notched a crucial 3-1 win against Wolverhampton this weekend, with Tammy grabbing a brace, scoring his side’s last two goals and extending their advantage over Blackburn to 4 points.

Tammy has been leaving it all on the pitch, game after game, and has shown unrelenting commitment to the Bristol City cause, especially under these dire circumstances. After the embarrassing loss to Preston, Abraham was apparently seen apologising to the travelling fans, with tears in his eyes. City have commenced their voting for Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year and by the looks of this thread on the biggest Bristol City fans’ forum on the internet, Abraham might be set to win at least the former award by some margin. The Sun has been running a story regarding Leicester City wanting to sign Abraham, either on loan or on a permanent deal with an initial offer of around 15 million pounds. It’d be very surprising if Chelsea even considered selling him at this point, though, considering Antonio Conte seems to have taken a liking to him as well.

Abraham has no doubt been one of the biggest loanee success stories of the season, and is now at 24 goals for the season in all competitions. He sits third in the race for top scorer in the Championship (with 21), a goal behind Newcastle’s Dwight Gayle and three behind Leeds United’s Chris Wood. Hopefully he’ll bag a few more before the season is out.

Upcoming fixtures: QPR (H, April 14), Blackburn Rovers (A, April 17)

Izzy Brown and Kasey Palmer are both out with injuries. Both are expected to be back in another week or a week and a half’s time.

Fikayo Tomori has been steadily making an impression at Brighton. Understandably having to wait for his chance initially, repeated injuries to Brighton’s defence, meant that Tomori has seen a few major substitute appearances, in addition to two starts, filling in at every position across the back four. In wins against Blackburn Rovers and QPR, Tomori replaced the (twice) injured Lewis Dunk in the 31st and 46th minutes respectively and impressed on both occasions, with Brighton fans even calling for a permanent signing in the summer!

Upcoming fixtures: Wolverhampton (A, 14 April), Wigan (H, April 17)

Fulham remain in hot pursuit of Sheffield Wednesday, the current occupants of the final promotion play-off spot, who sit two points above them. Tomas Kalas started in wins over Rotherham United and Ipswich Town, and also in a 4-2 loss to Derby County in which he gave away a penalty with a rash tackle in the box. Kalas has been playing well this season but has proven to be inconsistent as well. Lucas Piazon made his return from injury with a start against Derby, where he played 74 minutes. Against Ipswich, he was a 78th minute substitute.

Upcoming fixtures: Norwich (A, April 14), Aston Villa (H, April 17)

Christian Atsu played half an hour for Newcastle against Wigan and started in the next game against Burton Albion, playing 89 minutes there before returning to the bench and coming on in the 72nd minute in a 2-1 loss against Sheffield Wednesday.

Upcoming fixtures: Leeds United (H, April 14), Ipswich (A, April 17)

Jay Dasilva looks to have finally forced his way into the Charlton starting XI after barely leaving the bench since his move in January. He made his first two starts for the club in consecutive games against MK Dons (0-2 loss) and Southend United (2-1 win).

Charlie Colkett and Fankaty Dabo (at left-back) started Swindon’s games against Fleetwood Town (1-0 win) and MK Dons (1-1), with Colkett assisting the winning goal against Fleetwood, maintaining his contribution in at least 30% of the goals Swindon have scored since his arrival (6 out of 17). Swindon currently sit three points deep in the relegation zone.

Jake Clarke-Salter made his first start back from injury, playing 71 minutes in a 1-0 win against AFC Wimbledon. His previous start had come five months ago.

Jordan Houghton’s season came to a premature end in the third week of February due to injury, but make no mistake - he’s been, albeit largely unheralded, excellent this season. A permanent fixture in the Doncaster Rovers XI, he had established himself as one of the best central midfielders in League Two and although he was forced to miss the final stretch of his (former) side’s promotion push, his efforts have not gone to waste, as Doncaster Rovers finally sealed promotion to League One this weekend. Who knows, perhaps he’ll head back there next season as well; manager Darren Ferguson has mentioned that he’d love to have the youngster back among his ranks.

Jamal Blackman kept a clean sheet in Wycombe’s 0-2 win against Leyton Orient, then let in three in a 3-3 draw against Cheltenham Town. Wycombe still have a play-off spot well within their sights.

Alex Kiwomya played 14 minutes for Crewe against Cambridge United. You can read what Kiwomya had to say to Goal’s Nizaar Kinsella about one of his best friends and godfather to his child, Dele Alli, and his own ambitions of playing in the Premier League one day here.

Nathan Baxter started for Solihull Moors in their 1-0 loss to Torquay United but was then dropped to the bench for the subsequent two games, one of them ending in a 9-0 loss.

THE NETHERLANDS:

Due to Kasper Dolberg’s recent injury troubles, Bertrand Traore has been playing in his preferred striker role and to no one's surprise, has been scoring regularly! After somehow failing to find the back of the net in Ajax’s 2-1 win against Feyenoord, Traore scored in a 4-1 victory over AZ Alkmaar and another two against NEC Nijmegen, taking his tally in the Eredivisie to 9 goals and 11 in all competitions.

"I'm comfortable in my own skin. I approach, currently, my best shape like in my spell at Vitesse and am almost as good and under Guus Hiddink at Chelsea. Almost."

"If you want to go to the top level, you have to accept that (fans criticise easily). It happens at every club. If Chelsea does not perform, the fans are not happy. It gave me the signal that I had to to work even harder. I am young and want to improve, so I have given every game the utmost of myself. I saw the reaction of the fans not like an insult, but as an incentive. I take it as it is. It was also easy that I only understood English comments on the internet. "

"It's (his best position) a tricky question. Many people ask me what I prefer, but I really do not know. On the basis of the last three games you can say that I am a true striker. However, I can play both positions at a high level. Wherever I am, I want to always help the coach, my teammates and the club. I can change my mind quickly and know what is necessary, where. "

"The advantage as deepest striker is you are closer, creating easy opportunities at the goal. I have the moves and turns to play with my back to the defense. My nickname in Burkina Faso is Snake because I'm flexible and I can move easily, everywhere. "

"It (the schedule of Ajax) looks like the high intensity of the Premier League. And I want to succeed. It is only right for me and the reason for my lease to Ajax. I have a lot of contact with Chelsea. The scouts attend every game and talk to me. They are happy with the situation, but it's never good enough for them. I can, will and should be even better to be a top top player. The most important thing is that I'm decisive. They insist also constantly, that you can do everything right, but it is the end product: goals and assists. "

- Bertrand Traore (source: Telesport.nl)

Upcoming fixtures: Schalke (H, 13 April), Heerenveen (H, 16 April)

Marco van Ginkel added a few more goals to his tally as well, scoring his side’s second in a 2-0 win against Sparta Rotterdam and and two goals in a 5-0 win against Willem II. In doing so, he’s taken his tally to 7 goals in 11 appearances (he had 8 in 13 appearances in his spell at PSV last season).

Upcoming fixtures: ADO Den Haag (A, April 15)

Vitesse have been in good form following the International break, picking up three wins on the bounce and finding themselves in 5th place, five points behind Utrecht in 4th. Matt Miazga, Lewis Baker and Nathan started all three games, with Nathan and Baker each picking up an assist. Mukhtar Ali was an injury-time substitute in one of the games.

Upcoming fixtures: Excelsior (A, April 15)

Danilo Pantic didn’t make a single appearance for Excelsior.

GERMANY:

Andreas Christensen started as Borussia Monchengladbach kept a couple of clean sheets (0-0 vs Eintracht Frankfurt, 1-0 win vs Hertha BSC) and in their 2-3 win against Koln. With 6 games to go, despite their underwhelming form until the appointment of Dieter Hecking in January, Gladbach are two points off the Europa League qualification places with six games to go.

In the win against Berlin, Christensen also set the record for highest passing accuracy in a Bundesliga game this season, completing 111 out of 113 (98.2%) passes.

Meanwhile, Gladbach’s Sporting Director, Max Eberl continues to say the same things although it seems as if they are mere formalities at this point.

Upcoming fixtures: Hoffenheim (A, April 15)

Michael Hector was a 76th minute substitute against Monchengladbach.

Upcoming fixtures: Borussia Dortmund (A, April 15)

OTHERS:

Victorien Angban started yet again, this time against Barcelona but played only 45 minutes; he was replaced by Jeremie Boga at half-time in the eventual 1-4 defeat. Boga did, however, score the only Granada goal of the game.

Boga then played a full 90 in Granada’s goalless draw against Deportivo while Angban was an unused substitute, and was a 33rd minute substitute in their 1-3 loss against Valencia. Granada are seven points from safety and it doesn’t seem as if things will be changing any time season. Boga recently spoke out in defence of Chelsea’s loan system and claimed that he didn’t know what would happen next season but if Chelsea needed him, he was ready.

Upcoming fixtures: Celta Vigo (H, April 16)

Mario Pasalic played 90 minutes against Pescara and Palermo, scoring a goal each in both games.

After picking up a yellow and reaching the threshold number of cumulative bookings, Pasalic will miss the upcoming Milan Derby through suspension.

Kenneth Omeruo played 90 minutes for Alanyaspor in wins against Kasimpasa and Gaziantepspor.