Europa League round-up: Chelsea star lands first perfect 10

There was the first perfect 10 awarded in the Europa League this season on Thursday night as Chelsea secured a 3-1 win over BATE Borisov. Ruben Loftus-Cheek has struggled for regular game time under Maurizio Sarri this season, in part due to injury, but he made the most of his chance to impress the Italian with a man of the match display at Stamford Bridge. 

Loftus-Cheek netted a hat-trick for the Blues in the comfortable victory, meaning he has now scored as many Chelsea goals as strikers Olivier Giroud and Alvaro Morata combined in all competitions this season. The England international’s trio of goals came from five shots at Stamford Bridge, while returns of three key passes, seven successful dribbles, that the second most in a Europa League match this season, and a 94.7% pass success rate contributed to a perfect WhoScored 10 rating. 

Villarreal summer arrival Karl Toko Ekambi podiums after his man of the match display in a 5-0 dismantling of Rapid Wien. The Cameroonian has now had a direct hand in six goals in his last six Villarreal outings, including one goal and two assists on Thursday night, those coming from returns of seven shots and two key passes. An additional two successful dribbles helped the striker land a WhoScored rating of 9.44 this week. 

Rounding off the top three best rated players on Thursday is Genk forward Mbwana Aly Samatta as he put in a solid attacking display in a 4-2 win over Besiktas. The 25-year-old hit the back of the net with two of his five shots and provided one assist from one of his three key passes. One tackle and one interception ensured Aly Samatta was good value for his WhoScored man of the match award, landing a 9.21 rating for his troubles. 

As far as forgettable performances go, you’d be hard pressed to find one more apt than that of Milan Lukac. Akhisarspor were torn to pieces by Sevilla in Spain, falling to a 6-0 loss at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, with Milan Lukac enduring a nightmare first appearance of the season for the Turkish side. In the process of conceding six, Lukac was at fault for two, committing two errors that led to goals, one of which was for an own goal he scored with 10 minutes of the first half remaining. Such a disastrous display yielded a WhoScored rating of 2.83, far and away the worst in a Europa League match this season and the lowest WhoScored have awarded in a game in the competition. 

An honourable mention must go out to Sevilla, who despite their 6-0 win over Akhisarspor, don’t have a single player in the Europa League team of the week. While Luis Muriel is the fourth highest rated player of the week, with a WhoScored rating of 9.16, Toko Ekambi and Aly Samatta’s performance means he doesn’t earn a spot in the XI. It also says more about a fine collective showing than relying on individual brilliance to secure victory in the Europa League.