Tuesday 24 April 2018 07:53, UK
With less than a month to go until Gareth Southgate names his squad for the World Cup in Russia, we look at how his England hopefuls got on this weekend.
Southgate has until May 14 to give England's 35-man provisional squad to FIFA and needs to whittle it down to 23 by June 4 - two days after England's next friendly against Nigeria.
The England manager, who says he knows "19 or 20" players that he will select already, plans to name his 23-man squad early to ease pressure on preparations.
But how did they fare this weekend in the Premier League? We have had our notebook out over the last few days...
Midfielder Jake Livermore did his England chances no harm at all by scoring his first West Brom goal late on.
Joe Gomez will have given Gareth Southgate a boost by making a successful comeback after damaging ankle ligaments on England duty. Meanwhile, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's good form continued after being directly involved in his 10th league goal this season, the midfielder's best haul in the top flight.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek had more touches than any other Crystal Palace player (63), but was far from a standout figure at Watford, recording a pass completion of 72.5% from 40 passes in total.
It proved to be an enjoyable outing at Wembley for Manchester United's England contingent. Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Ashley Young and Jesse Lingard all started, while Marcus Rashford came off the bench to make sure of the victory.
Dele Alli opened the scoring for Spurs but struggling to replicate his strong start for the duration of the game. Alarmingly, Harry Kane was kept quiet throughout by United's defence, three of whom could line up alongside the striker in Russia.
Jack Wilshere sat the game out for Arsenal, while Danny Welbeck was full of running in the 88 minutes he was on the pitch, though was consistently wasteful in front of goal.
Despite conceding four goals, Joe Hart enhanced his chances of forcing his way into Gareth Southgate's starting XI as his overall display was excellent. He made two brilliant saves with the scoreline at 1-1, denying both Granit Xhaka and Welbeck and was let down by his defenders for the first two goals which he was helpless to prevent.
In the battle of the England goalkeepers, both Jack Butland and Nick Pope put in strong performances, with the Stoke stopper picking up the man of the match award.
Both looked confident with aerial balls, and were alert on all occasions to rush out of their box as both sides looked to play direct.
Elsewhere, James Tarkowski had a mixed day, looking sloppy in possession but impressive defensively and attacking the ball in the opposition box.
Raheem Sterling had a brilliant start at the Etihad, setting up the opening goal for David Silva and scoring the second in the 16th minute. Fabian Delph has an outside chance of making the World Cup squad, nabbing himself an assist for potential England team-mate Sterling's goal.
Kyle Walker was an unused substitute although his fellow defender Alfie Mawson played the whole game for Swansea as he looks to secure a seat on the plane to Russia while Tammy Abraham came off the bench in the 75th minute.
Gary Cahill did a solid job in defence for Chelsea, having been recalled to the side in place of Andreas Christensen. He largely kept Charlie Austin - an outside shot for Gareth Southgate's World Cup squad - quiet until late in the game when the striker hit the post.
Ryan Bertrand put in a positive display down the left side, although was not able to get forward as much as he might have liked. Nathan Redmond was only given half an hour off the bench to impress but went close to scoring with a fizzing effort that Willy Caballero did well to keep out.
Jordan Pickford had a good game for Everton and was solid when called upon. He was aided by Michael Keane, with a generally good display in defence although he was tested by Dwight Gayle later in the game.
Man of the match Theo Walcott scored the only goal to increase his chances of being on the plane, although Jonjo Shelvey took time to grow into the game and was taken off with seven minutes remaining.
