From the UK

Last Tuesday, during the midweek round of fixtures, Danny Drinkwater started the first Premier League game of his loan at Burnley having overcome injury.The midfielder’s one previous appearance for the Turf Moor team was back in August in the Carabao Cup and now he was handed a league start in a home match against Manchester City (pictured top). Drinkwater played an hour as Burnley lost 4-1 with their manager Sean Dyche noting afterwards:‘There is no measure on that performance. We know he [Drinkwater] needs true Premier League fitness, as in game time. It is difficult to shortcut true Premier League fitness, it does take time and he knows that.’ Drinkwater was an unused sub in Burnley’s 5-0 defeat at Tottenham on Saturday.In the Championship this weekend, Matt Miazga and Jake Clarke-Salter came up against each other when Reading hosted Birmingham although neither of our centre-backs completed the game.With just over quarter of an hour played Clarke-Salter appeared to dislocate a shoulder in an awkward landing and Miazga, who had headed just wide in the opening half, was withdrawn during the interval in an attacking tactical switch by Reading. The score was 1-1 at that stage and the change did not pay off as Birmingham ran out 3-2 winners with former Chelsea midfielder Josh McEachran influential. It was their first win in six weeks. Both sides are mid-table.Dujon Sterling (pictured below) played the whole of Wigan’s 2-1 defeat at Luton who were missing Izzy Brown due to the hamstring injury he suffered last weekend. Wigan took the lead and the goal came from a great Sterling cross with another of his deliveries fired just wide soon after, but they conceded twice in the final five minutes to remain in the relegation zone.

Charlton suffered a fourth defeat in a row and have not won in eight league games having gone down 1-0 at strugglers Middlesbrough. Conor Gallagher came the closest to scoring for the south Londoners with a shot curled wide, but the decisive goal had been scored in the first minute by another midfielder developed in the Chelsea Academy, George Saville. Gallagher’s loan side are now 17th in the 24-team table.A division down in League One, Richard Nartey played in Burton’s defence in a home 1-1 draw against Southend and followed that up with another home game on Saturday, this one ending in defeat by two goals to nil to Lincoln.There was midweek cup action for Luke McCormick at Shrewsbury and he was back to facing an Academy side as his loan club’s first team had been drawn against Man City U21s in the Leasing.com Trophy. McCormick came on for the final 12 minutes with the score 1-1 and that is how it remained, with Shrewsbury eliminated by a penalty shoot-out.In contrast, Jacob Maddox was part of the Tranmere side which knocked out Man United U21s in the same competition. That match was decided in normal time with Wirral side winning 3-2. He played 90 minutes in what was his second Leasing.com Trophy match for Tranmere but he awaits his League One debut and was an unused sub on Saturday.Josh Grant is a regular for Plymouth in the division below but the defender suffered a 1-0 defeat at Cambridge in the latest game.Having waited until a fortnight ago for his first game for Ross County due to injury, goalkeeper Nathan Baxter has now played three games Scotland’s top flight, the latest on Wednesday and it was his first win. His side came from behind to win 2-1 against Hibs with Baxter making a good save to keep out a powerful shot and preserve the advantage near the end.

Overseas highlights

In France, there have been two Ligue 1 wins in a week for Tiemoue Bakayoko and Monaco, the first on the road at Toulouse where they were triumphant 2-1 thanks to a late goal, and then at home to Amiens where a solid 3-0 was recorded. Despite those six points, Monaco’s poor start to the season means they are still mid-table.

Mario Pasalic helped Atalanta to a third win in a row in all competitions when they scored deep into added time to vanquish Verona 3-2 at home. It keeps a healthy seven point gap between the sixth-place Bergamo club and Napoli below them in the Serie A table.In the Bundesliga it was a tough weekend for Lewis Baker and Fortuna Dusseldorf as they were hammered 5-0 at Borussia Dortmund, with Baker withdrawn in the second half shortly after the third goal was conceded.