Four of West Ham United's loanees were involved in midweek action across English cup competitions and on the continent...
Young defender Kaelan Casey started and completed the full 90 minutes as Swansea City pushed Premier League heavyweights Manchester City all the way before falling to a 3-1 home defeat in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
After celebrating turning 21 on Tuesday, our No42 was handed his fourth consecutive start for the Welshmen in the cup competition, having previously played a key role in wins over Crawley Town, Plymouth Argyle and Nottingham Forest.
This time round at the Swansea.com Stadium, the hosts - who won the EFL Cup in 2012/13 - enjoyed a dream start against Pep Guardiola’s eight-time winners, when Gonçalo Franco struck the opener in the 12th minute.
However, Jeremy Doku’s deflected effort made it 1-1 shortly before half-time, ahead of second-half goals from Omar Marmoush and Rayan Cherki that dashed the Swans’ hopes of an upset.
Casey will now look to add to his total of seven appearances for Swansea when they return to EFL Championship action on Saturday, aiming to improve on their 13th-place standing in the table when they travel to sixth-place Charlton Athletic.
Explosive attacker Gideon Kodua, who won the 2023 FA Youth Cup alongside Casey, continued his impressive form for Luton Town by playing the first 55 minutes of their 3-1 win over Brighton & Hove Albion U21s in the Vertu Trophy on Tuesday.
Kodua’s fellow attacker Jerry Yates notched a brace for the Hatters to make it 2-0 by the break, ahead of the former’s departure from the action. Noël Atom pulled one back for the young Seagulls, but 16-year-old Fin Evans put the result beyond doubt when he became Luton’s youngest-ever goalscorer eleven minutes from time.
The result seals Luton’s place in the EFL Trophy round of 32, where they will be joined by West Ham’s U21s following our impressive 3-2 win over Swindon Town, also on Tuesday night.
Having now made 14 appearances for Jack Wilshere’s side across all competitions this term, and scored two goals, Kodua will hope to keep his place in the XI for Friday’s FA Cup first-round fixture at home to Forest Green Rovers.
Over in Italy, Maxwel Cornet made his third appearance of the season for loan club Genoa on Wednesday night, featuring for 53 minutes of a 2-0 home defeat to Jamie Vardy’s Cremonese in Serie A.
Two Federico Bonazzoli strikes, either side of half-time, proved enough to earn the full share of the spoils for the visitors, leaving Genoa bottom of the table with three points from their nine games so far.
Cornet and the rest of Patrick Vieira’s squad will continue their search for a first league win of the campaign when they travel to 13th-place Sassuolo on Monday 3 November.
Finally, midfielder Edson Álvarez played the first 55 minutes of Fenerbahçe’s emphatic 4-0 away win at ten-man Gaziantep in the Turkish Süper Lig on Monday.
Morocco international Youssef En-Nesyri scored twice in the first 21 minutes to put the 19-time title winners firmly on course for victory, before Talisca matched that feat within seven second-half minutes to add gloss on the scoreline.
Fenerbahçe are currently third in the 18-team standings after ten games, six points off leaders Galatasaray. Álvarez will be looking to help his team bridge that gap, while adding to his seven appearances for the club in all competitions, when they travel to Beşiktaş on Sunday.
