We start in southern Russia in the Krasnodar Stadium, where the Blues will be playing on Wednesday evening.

At the weekend, Krasnodar hosted a Spartak Moscow side containing Victor Moses, and the Nigerian opened his account for his new club on 33 minutes with a composed finish after cutting on to his left foot. Spartak ran out 3-1 winners, with Moses withdrawn midway through the second half.

Heading to the other end of Europe, Malang Sarr (pictured top) played his first two Porto games in the past week, the first of which was a start in their 3-1 defeat at Manchester City in the Champions League. The central defender then came off the bench after Porto had been reduced to 10 men against Gil Vicente on Saturday, helping them see out a narrow 1-0 victory.

Staying in Portugal, Lucas Piazon and Rio Ave also won 1-0 at the weekend, away to newly-promoted Farense.

Two Chelsea loanees went head-to-head in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon, and it was Michy Batshuayi and not Ruben Loftus-Cheek who left Craven Cottage with the points and the smiles after a 2-1 victory for the Eagles. Batshuayi set up what would prove the decisive goal by finding Wilfried Zaha, while Loftus-Cheek played 73 minutes before his withdrawal.

Elsewhere in the English top flight, Ethan Ampadu was deployed in central midfield for Sheffield United’s game at Liverpool, and his boss Chris Wilder hailed his performance as ‘outstanding’ afterwards, with the Blades running the champions close and perhaps unfortunate to lose 2-1. Among a number of individual highlights, Ampadu set up a great chance for Oli McBurnie with the visitors 1-0 ahead in the first half, but he shot wide.

Aston Villa’s perfect start was ended by Leeds United on Friday night. Ross Barkley played the full game, but it was former Blue Patrick Bamford who stole the headlines with a second-half hat-trick.

Last Monday, Conor Gallagher made his Premier League debut, featuring throughout as West Brom and Burnley played out a goalless draw. The 20-year-old looked bright, and will hope to keep his place for the Baggies’ trip to Brighton later today.

There was midweek action in the EFL with Blues featuring in all three leagues.

In the Championship, Marc Guehi and Swansea registered back-to-back 1-1 away draws at Coventry and Bristol City respectively, while Jamal Blackman made some good stops to help Rotherham draw at Nottingham Forest with the same scoreline, before they were comprehensively beaten 3-0 at leaders Reading.

Ian Maatsen had a major impact on his Charlton debut away to Blackpool, coming off the bench at half-time with both sides down to 10 men and sending over the cross that led to the only goal late on. It earned the young left-back a start for the trip to Northampton, where he again impressed as the Addicks won 2-0.

Also in League One, there were narrow 1-0 midweek wins for Accrington Stanley, featuring Jon Russell and Tariq Uwakwe, and Bristol Rovers, for whom Luke McCormick started against his former club Shrewsbury.

Accrington beat Fleetwood with Nathan Baxter an unused sub; their weekend game was postponed after a COVID outbreak at the club.

It was a disappointing couple of home games for Stevenage and Jamie Cumming, as they were beaten twice, first by Newport (0-1) and then Leyton Orient (0-2).

Heading back abroad, former EFL loanee Trevoh Chalobah played his first full 90 minutes in Ligue 1 as Lorient were narrowly beaten 1-0 by Marseille.

Over the border in Belgium, Matt Miazga helped Anderlecht win 3-1 at Kortrijk on Friday night, while in the Netherlands Vitesse Arnhem kept up their fine start to the season by beating PSV Eindhoven, with Armando Broja in their side. In the Dutch second tier, George McEachran was a late sub as MVV Maastricht were well beaten by Ajax II, with the damage done before his arrival.

We complete our round-up with a mixed set of results on the continent. Lewis Baker played the full game for Eddie Newton’s Trabzonspor as they lost 3-1 at Fenerbache, Kenedy started for Getafe who beat Granada 1-0 in La Liga, and Tiemoue Bakayoko helped Napoli get back to winning ways yesterday after a 1-0 midweek Europa League loss to AZ Alkmaar. They came from behind to beat Benevento 2-1 and move up to second in the Serie A table.