England winners and losers: Djed Spence influential in a bad week for Arsenal star | OneFootball

Good camp for Elliot Anderson but Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dominic Solanke suffer setback to bid to make World Cup squad

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With Tuesday’s emphatic 5-0 win over Latvia, England punched their ticket to next summer’s World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Here, Standard Sport assesses the winners and losers from the October camp...

Winners

Djed Spence

Handed his full debut against Wales at Wembley, Spence shone at left-back in a well-balanced display that involved assured defending as well as adding to the attack.

Djed Spence boosted his World Cup chances with impressive displays at full-back

The FA via Getty Images

The same was on display in Riga, where he this time played right-back but was just as energetic, crossing early, forcing Tomisevs into the own goal with a fine delivery, and keeping the pace of play up.

Being able to play left-back and right-back could help Tino Livramento, injured this month, make his way into the 26-man World Cup squad. The same is true for Spence.

Elliot Anderson

He has started the last four England games, and it is increasingly difficult to envision a world in which he does not partner Declan Rice at the base of midfield next summer.

The Nottingham Forest man was tireless in winning the ball back for his team at Wembley and in Latvia. In fact, he has won possession more times than any other England player in their World Cup qualifying campaign - and didn’t make his debut until the fourth game.

Elliot Anderson is leading the race to partner Declan Rice in midfield

The FA via Getty Images

He also gets forward and created more chances than anyone else in Riga, as well as winning most duels and completing most passes. Seriously impressive for a 22-year-old uncapped until last month.

Morgan Rogers

It remains to be seen how easily Tuchel will slip Jude Bellingham straight back into the squad, but his place in the team has come under new pressure from Aston Villa’s Rogers. That much is fair to say.

Rogers is a silky midfielder, a traditional attacking No8 playing in the hole for an England team with excellent defensive cover behind him in the form of Anderson and Rice.

He was one of England’s best players against Wales, scoring his first international goal early on, and never let up against Latvia despite being less involved.

Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze all want to challenge Bellingham for that No10 role, but it’s Rogers who is playing the minutes there.

Losers

Myles Lewis-Skelly

Along with Dan Burn, Myles Lewis-Skelly was the first player Tuchel handed an England debut to, naming him in the starting line-up for his first game in charge against Albania in March.

The Arsenal teenager became the youngest player ever to score on his England debut, notching the first goal of the Tuchel era in what ended up a 2-0 win.

Myles Lewis-Skelly is facing a fight to keep his place in the squad

The FA via Getty Images

But Lewis-Skelly’s sure-fire role as Arsenal’s starting left-back last season has not carried into the new season, and he is yet to start in the Premier League, with Riccardo Calafiori ahead of him.

Lewis-Skelly started in Latvia but did not always look sharp. The 19-year-old is super player but faces stiff competition from Spence and Livramento for a place on the plane.

Trent Alexander-Arnold

Like Bellingham, Trent Alexander-Arnold has mysteriously missed out on featuring in Real Madrid’s annual calendar for 2026, and while that may sound rather innocuous news, it is perhaps symptomatic of his difficult start to life in the Spanish capital.

The former Liverpool man is one of the best passers the Premier League has ever seen but his defending has often been subjected to criticism, and in Madrid that has continued.

Now out injured, he is seen by Tuchel as “slightly behind” first-choice right-back Reece James for England, and the versatile Spence and Livramento serve as further competition. He faces a fight to get back in.

Dominic Solanke

Tuchel has tended to select only two strikers in his squads so far, with Harry Kane and Ollie Watkins the obvious pair and both of them duly picked.

This month in particular has not helped Solanke’s cause, with Watkins on the scoresheet at Wembley and then Kane, who is inevitably going to start at the World Cup, notching his 75th and 76th international goals in Riga.

Solanke has had minor surgery on his ankle and is yet to come back, but even when he does he will face a significant challenge to budge Watkins out the way as Kane’s main deputy.

Third-choice striker might not prove enough for a seat on the plane and, even if it does, rather than to him it could go to Liam Delap of Chelsea, who Tuchel has namechecked on a number of occasions.