Eight Arsenal loanees made midweek appearances across the lower leagues of English football, let’s take a look at how things went.

Dejan Iliev with Shrewsbury Town (Photo via Iliev on Instagram)
Dejan Iliev with Shrewsbury Town (Photo via Iliev on Instagram)

Zech Medley started and Trae Coyle came off the bench as Gillingham beat AFC Wimbledon 2-1. You can read more about their situations here.

Tolaji Bola came off at half-time in Rochdale’s 1-1 draw with Northampton. He’d completed 97% of his passes and created a chance in the first half, but the Rochdale boss seemingly wanted to make a tactical change.

Matt Smith continued his run of positive individual performances with another three chances created, two interceptions and four tackles, as well as winning seven of his eight individual duels. However, Swindon Town lost the match 1-0.

James Olayinka was also on the receiving end of a defeat with Southend United. He played the full 90 minutes but struggled to really get involved in the game, only completing 15 passes.

Dejan Iliev came back into the Shrewsbury Town lineup in goal, making three saves and one punch in a 2-2 draw. He faces some uncertainty in the coming weeks after the Shrewsbury boss was subsequently sacked.

Mark McGuinness had a generally positive individual performance in a very poor Ipswich Town display. They lost 3-0, but for the most part, it was McGuinness centre-back partner Luke Woolfenden who was caught out for the goals.

The only other Arsenal loanee to end midweek on the winning side was Ben Sheaf, who played 90 minutes for Coventry City in a 1-0 win over Cardiff City on Wednesday.

Tyreece John-Jules (injury), Harry Clarke (injury), and Lucas Torreira (coronavirus) all missed out on their club’s midweek games.

Finally, Daniel Ballard made the bench for Blackpool’s 3-2 defeat but didn’t get onto the pitch. He hasn’t featured since his red card. You’d hope the fact they conceded three goals without him in defence would help his case for the next match.