Arsenal: Mikel Arteta reveals Ben White's reaction to England boos | OneFootball

Arsenal defender proved an uppopular figure among England fans at Wembley

Mikel Arteta insisted Ben White was not impacted by the boos from England fans, revealing how much the defender loved being back on international duty.

White did not feature again under Gareth Southgate but indicated he was keen to return under Tuchel, and he got the opportunity in friendlies against Uruguay and Japan.

The 28-year-old was booed when he came on against Uruguay, and again when his name was read out after his goal in that match, and there were more jeers when he started the defeat to Japan.

Asked whether he was disappointed to hear that reaction, Arteta jokingly responded: "The volume was down, so I could not hear that.

"I could just see the big smile on his face and the way he came back from the national team and the good things he was telling about everybody.

"About the group, about the meetings that they had, about Thomas and everybody.

"That's great to hear because when you send a player to a national team you really want to bring back a better player. A player that is happy, a player that is available and fit.

"That was certainly Ben's case."

Viktor Gyokeres scored four times across two games for Sweden

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Viktor Gyokeres also returned to Arsenal in a buoyant mood after a superb international break in which he fired Sweden to the World Cup.

The striker scored a hat-trick in the play-off semi-final win over Ukraine and then struck an 88th-minute winner against Poland to get Sweden to only their second World Cup since 2006.

"Especially the importance of those goals," Arteta said.

"I can imagine how much it means for him to get his country over the line, in the position they were in, to now be able to play the World Cup.

"He was buzzing. He was full of energy and confidence and that's great."

On the other end of the spectrum, Riccardo Calafiori was part of the Italy squad that once again failed to qualify for the World Cup.

Italy were beaten on penalties by Bosnia and Herzegovina and they have now remarkably failed to reach the competition for a third successive time.

Arteta hoped Arsenal would be able to help Calafiori get over that huge blow, but revealed his own disappointment at Italy's latest failure.

"Try to lift him," Arteta said.

"I think not only for Riccy, for Italy, for football - a country like them with such a passion and history, to not be in the World Cup is tough.

"I don't think it's good for football but that shows you as well the difficulty of going through all those phases to earn the right to be in the competition."