England winners and losers: Arsenal and Chelsea stars influential in a bad week for Eberechi Eze | OneFootball

Dream camp for Elliot Anderson but Jarrod Bowen suffers setback in bid to make World Cup squad

England enjoyed a successful international break, with two victories putting them on the cusp of qualifying for next year’s World Cup.

Thomas Tuchel’s side beat Andorra 2-0 last Saturday and followed that up three days later with a thumping 5-0 victory over Serbia.

Competition for places in Tuchel’s squad are hotting up ahead of next year’s tournament in Canada, Mexico and USA, with players taking their chance to shine in the absence of others.

Here, Standard Sport takes a look at the winners and losers from this international break…

Winners

Elliot Anderson

A dream camp for the Nottingham Forest midfielder.

He was man of the match on his debut against Andorra and was rewarded with a second start against Serbia. Again, he was named man of the match.

Tuchel appears to have finally found the No6 he has been looking for.

Noni Madueke scored his first England goal in the Serbia win

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Noni Madueke

The Arsenal winger continues to be one of the biggest success stories under Tuchel and has now been directly involved in five goals in his first nine appearances for England.

Madueke bagged his first senior England goal in the Serbia win and stepped up in the absence of the injured Bukayo Saka.

Reece James is leading the race to be England right-back at the World Cup

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Reece James

Established himself as the No1 right-back with two good performances.

England are blessed with plenty of options in that area, but Tuchel is clearly a big fan of James - and the Chelsea captain showed why.

Grabbed an assist agianst Andorra and was defensively excellent against Serbia.

Losers

Eberechi Eze failed to press his claim for a starting spot

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Eberechi Eze

Picked to start against Andorra but failed to take his chance.

He missed a few chances and was replaced for the Serbia match by Morgan Rogers.

The Aston Villa star caught the eye, setting up Madueke for England’s second goal, and could now be ahead of Eze in the pecking order.

Jarrod Bowen was restricted to late cameos off the bench

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Jarrod Bowen

Restricted to short cameos off the bench in both games.

That led to him having a quiet camp, while the rest of England’s wingers had more joy.

Madueke and Marcus Rashford both scored, while Anthony Gordon started in Serbia and performed well.

Trent Alexander-Arnold

The Real Madrid star was a high-profile omission from this squad, but England did not miss him.

James excelled at right-back and he will be hard to dislodged from that spot, if he can stay fit.

Alexander-Arnold faces a fight to get back into the squad, especially when full-backs like Djed Spence and Tino Livramento can play on either flank.