Christian Atsu put in a man of the match performance to lead loan club Vitesse Arnhem to the top of the Eredivisie when they defeated FC Utrecht 3-1 at the GelreDome on Saturday.
The 21-year old Ghanaian joined Chelsea from FC Porto this summer and was subsequently loaned out to Vitesse following his transfer to England.
Atsu opened his goal scoring account for Vitesse when he converted a penalty in the 31st minute after the ball was handled in the box by an Utrecht defender. Atsu's goal was cancelled out after former Southampton forward Steve De Ridder equalized with twenty minutes remaining.
With a chance to go top of the Eredivisie on the line, Vitesse stepped up the intensity and sealed victory through late goals from Mike Havenaar and Davy Propper.
The win sees Vitesse leapfrog AZ Alkmaar to the top of the table and their current success can be attributed to the stellar form of their Chelsea loanees, most notably Lucas Piazon, Atsu and Patrick Van Aanholt, all of which started the match on Saturday.
The clubs form has faced criticism from other Eredivisie clubs who believe they have an unfair advantage with the amount of foreign loan players they have. However, there are no laws that prevent the club from loaning players from a particular club and Vitesse manager Peter Bosz may even look to reinforce his squad with help from the Blues this coming winter.
"It seems that we cannot buy anything this winter, but I do not rule out more renting. We will certainly talk about it," he told Football-Oranje.com.
