While Chelsea were tasting Club World Cup glory for the first time thanks to Kai Havertz's penalty in extra-time, there was still plenty of Blues interest to be had at home.
The loan army rarely sleeps with Thomas Tuchel's side having more than 20 players out honing their skills and hoping to enhance their reputations with other clubs across England and beyond.
This weekend provided plenty of ups and downs for a number of youngsters but included one even doing Chelsea a bit of a favour in the Premier League.
football.london takes a look at how Chelsea's crop of loan stars got on below:
Nathan Baxter - Hull City
The goalkeeper missed Hull's defeat to Fulham through illness. The 23-year-old has now missed three Championship games in a row for the Tigers, who are pointless in that period.
"He's not well yet. That's the only thing I can say, I don't know how soon he will be well. For this moment, he's not fit enough to play," Hull boss Shota Arveladze told Hull Live.
Jamie Cumming - MK Dons
Cumming continued his good form this season and earned his third clean sheet since arriving on loan at MK Dons in January. Ipswich couldn't find a way past the goalkeeper as he continues to enhance his reputation in League one.
Sami Tlemcani - Merstham
The 17-year-old stopper made his debut for the Surrey side but was unable to prevent them falling 2-0 to Worthing.
Ethan Ampadu - Venezia
Venezia pulled off an impressive away win at Torino despite going down to 10 men in the 98th minute. Ampadu played at right back and produced a solid performance as the Italian side can now head out of the relegation zone if they take a point from their game in hand over Cagliari.
Juan Castillo and Mason Burstow - Charlton
Chelsea's newest signing, Burstow started the Addicks' match against Wigan but struggled to make an impact in defeat away to Wigan. Castillo was able to make his debut for the club in the final 10 minutes of the match.
Jake Clarke-Salter and Ian Maatsen - Coventry
Clarke-Salter featured on the left side of defence as Coventry overcame Reading 3-2. The defender had a difficult afternoon against Yakou Meite but showed his quality too.
Maatsen however found himself in a new role in a more advanced position behind forward Viktor Gyökeres. The Dutchman certainly made his presence felt, landing on the scoresheet with an impressive finish.
Usually found as a left wing-back, Maatsen was slotted through on the right side of the box and showed a striker's instinct to slot past Arsenal loanee Karl Hein.
Emerson Palmieri - Lyon
Emerson started in Lyon's comfortable 2-0 win over Nice before being substituted in the dying moments of the game.
The Italian was impressed with his side's display noting: "Great performance yesterday, let’s keep working hard!"
Henry Lawrence - AFC Wimbledon
The young defender is continuing his recovery from a hamstring injury, but is some way from a return to the first team.
Wimbledon boss Mark Robinson said: “Henry Lawrence is going to be longer term, maybe three or four weeks. It’s a real shame, but at some point all of these players are going to have a part to play.”
Matt Miazga - Alaves
It was another weekend on the bench for the 26-year-old as Alaves came away 2-1 victors over Valencia. Miazga will hope to return to the starting XI for the Spanish side's next match as Victor Laguardia picked up his fifth yellow card of the season and a one-match suspension.
Baba Rahman and Danny Drinkwater - Reading
Drinkwater was unavailable for the Royals' 3-2 defeat to Coventry as Rahman produced an impressive first half in combination with Junior Hoilett. The loanee showed some excellent crossing but was unable to sustain his impact into the second half.
Dujon Sterling - Blackpool
Blackpool were denied by a 95th minute winner from Bournemouth on Saturday but Sterling nevertheless put in an impressive performance.
The 22-year-old was up against the likes of Todd Cantwell but he won every duel as he cemented his spot at left-back.
Levi Colwill and Tino Anjorin - Huddersfield Town
Neither player was available for the Terries at the weekend with Colwill spending the time working with the club's medical staff over the weekend in the hope of returning to full training this week.
Anjorin, however is yet to join the Yorkshire club at all.
When the attacking midfielder was announced as a loan arrival on transfer deadline day, Anjorin was expected to join the Huddersfield side on the middle of February in the final stages of his recovery after suffering a broken metatarsal during his loan at Lokomotive Moscow.
Ahead of facing Sheffield United, Huddersfield boss Carlos Corberán said: "Tino Anjorin continues working with the Chelsea medical staff.
"We're waiting until they say he can come and work with our medical staff as they're going to be doing different work.
"Levi Colwill has been doing some exercise and will start working separately with members of staff over the weekend.
"We'll see if he can work with the group next week.
"Right now, it's too early to say when he'll be back playing."
Tiemoué Bakayoko - AC Milan
Bakayoko spent his third Serie A match in a row on the bench as AC Milan overcame Sampdoria 1-0. The former Monaco ace has not featured for the Italian side since they were beaten by Spezia in Janauary.
Billy Gilmour
It was of course a difficult afternoon for the Scottish midfield as Norwich fell to defeat against Manchester City. Gilmour retained a strong influence for the Canaries as he produced the most passes, key passes, crosses and dribbles for his side.
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Conor Gallagher
Gallagher featured in an advanced role for the Eagles against Brentford but like his forward teammates, struggled to create much against the Bees.
With Chelsea up next, Gallagher will be disappointed to have to sit out.
"He just wants to play games," Patrick Vieira told football.london on Friday.
"I speak a lot with Claude Makelele at Chelsea and the way that he talks about Conor and the way that his players want to improve and the energy that he has allows him to perform every week.
"He wants to play and one of his strengths is the way he recovers from game after game. He is one of the players that recovers well after the game, so that allows him to play straightaway a couple of days after.
"So when you are young, there's no reason why you can't keep playing games."
Armando Broja
Southampton did a brilliant job in preventing Manchester United being able to gain too much ground while Chelsea competed in the Club World Cup by holding them to a draw and of course Broja had an important role. Che Adams grabbed the goal but Broja tormented Harry Maguire, outpace Raphael Varange and was a constant source of danger.
In the aftermath reports of Arsenal having an interest in the Chelsea youngster emerged, with the Gunners monitoring his situation.
Michy Batshuayi
The Belgian forward scored in a penalty shootout, while former Blue Franco Di Santo missed his for Goztepe, to help Besiktas progress in the Turkish Cup ahead of the weekend, and is set to play against Adana Demirspor on Monday.
