Europe

Aleksandar Mitrović's phenomenal start to the 2021-22 Championship season continued on Wednesday as he buried Swansea with a first-half hat trick. The hulking Serbian now has 10 goals in as many games this campaign, along with three assists, for third-placed Fulham. 

The 27-year-old has endured tough times recently, often finding himself on the bench last season as Fulham was relegated from the Premier League — this despite the fact that his 26 goals in 2019-20 propelled the West London side to the top flight in the first place. 

Last year it was Adam Armstrong who provided the main thrust in the Blackburn attack. This season, following Armstrong's departure to the Premier League with Southampton, Ben Brereton Díaz has picked up the mantle for Rovers. 

Brereton Díaz is the key reason why Armstrong has not been missed as yet. With nine goals in the season's first 10 games, the 22-year-old has fired Rovers into sixth place. He announced in July he would use his mother's surname in club games as well as international games for Chile, for whom the Stoke-born forward made his international bow on June 14. 

It's fair to say Barcelona's announcement of the signing of Luuk de Jong was met with skepticism and surprise. The fact that he was brought in specifically in line with the wishes of Ronald Koeman, with whom the Barça faithful's patience is wearing thin, can not have helped his cause. It also didn't help that he was brought in to ease the sting of Lionel Messi's departure, something which was never going to be easy.

Zenit St. Petersburg sits in third place in Champions League Group H after Wednesday's 4-0 stomping of Swedish side Malmö, level on points with Chelsea. Zenit opened group play with a 1-0 defeat to the Blues, its first loss of the season, on Sep. 14. 

Sergei Semak's team coasted to victory in its second UCL outing of the season, already up 2-0 when Malmö's Anel Ahmedhodžić was sent off for a handball after 53 minutes.

After finishing last season in sixth place in the Premier League and qualifying for the Europa League, David Moyes' West Ham has yet to slow down. The East Londoners sit in seventh in the league and enter Thursday's matchup on the back of a 1-0 win over Manchester United in the League Cup and a league victory over Leeds. 

Our European journey continues this Thursday...

The Federico Chiesa goal vs Chelsea came only 11 seconds into the second half. The sole goal in Juventus’ 1-0 group stage victory against Chelsea was missed by anyone who didn’t quite get back to their screens in time.

Chiesa Goal Vs Chelsea

FEDERICO CHIESA. 11 SECONDS INTO THE SECOND HALF. pic.twitter.com/W3KkSWJE37

Ronald Koeman, it’s time for your 45-second phone call.  

After an embarrassingly limp (zero shots on target) 3-0 defeat to Bayern Munich at the Camp Nou to begin Champions League play, Barcelona played even worse on Wednesday night during a 3-0 defeat to Benfica in Lisbon (one shot on target!).

There can be no denying it's been a disappointing start to the season for AS Monaco. After getting dumped out of Champions League qualifying by Shakhtar Donetsk, the principality club sits eighth in Ligue 1 after eight games.