Goals from Arsenal duo Bukayo Saka and Eberechie Eze sealed victory for Thomas Tuchel's Three Lions ahead of the trip to Tirana where England will play Albania on Sunday
Four Things We Learned after England beat Serbia 2-0 at Wembley
Goals from Arsenal duo Bukayo Saka and Eberechie Eze sealed victory for Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions ahead of the trip to Tirana where England will play Albania on Sunday
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Arsenal 2-0 Serbia: Goals from Gunners pair Bukayo Saka and substitute Eberechie Eze earned England a comfortable victory over Serbia at Wembley on Thursday evening.
1 - A good night’s work for Arsenal’s Saka and Eze
It was a good night all round for Bukayo Saka who scored his 14th goal for England, after the Arsenal attacker volleyed, side-footed into the net with a superbly taken finish, in challenging conditions, to put the home side ahead.
Of those 14 strikes, 12 have come in competitive matches, which is certainly impressive, while underlining that the Gunners 24-year-old is a player who rises to the big occasion.
Saka also moved level with Theo Walcott for England caps while an Arsenal player (47), with only four Gunners making more appearances for the men’s team: Kenny Sansom (77), David Seaman (72), Tony Adams (66) and Ashley Cole (52).
Saka, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, said after the match:“Another goal and a nice one as well. I’m happy with that one. It was a nice strike, a beautiful goal.
“A good performance and a tough game. For Serbia, it was everything for them, and they came with full aggression.
“We dealt with it well, we could have been more clinical, but we won 2-0, so we’re happy.
“To come out here and to match their hunger even though we have qualified - we are happy with this result.”
Saka shoots, Saka scores…
2 - Time running out for Bellingham and Grealish to stake a claim
Tuchel has now made it abundantly obvious that Saka is his first-choice pick to operate on the right flank, and Rashford – or the injured Anthony Gordon - on the left, with both attackers supplementing striker, captain and England’s record scorer Harry Kane up front.
With the German boss a huge fan of Arsenal’s Declan Rice as an attacking number eight, the intelligent Rogers as a more disciplined number 10, and Elliot Anderson as an obdurate number six, then you have to assume - if all six stay fit and in form, which, admittedly, is a big assumption given the vagaries of the beautiful game - the current midfield and attack will start as Tuchel’s favoured front half dozen come next summer’s jamboree in North America and Mexico.
All of which means time is running out - if it hasn’t already - for the mercurial Jack Grealish to make the squad, let alone the team, while Bellingham himself has a job to do to break back into the starting XI.
Why?
Well, Tuchel is a firm adherent of mentor Ralf Rangnick, and while the German tactical meister failed to impress during a miserable spell at Old Trafford, the fact is the current Austrian boss is a firm believer in the power of intense counter-pressing from the top.
Something Tuchel is a firm disciple of. And unless the talented, but less disciplined Bellingham can curb his instincts when casting off the shackles of Tuchel’s sacred orders for positioning and pressing - or gegenpressing to call it by its original name - then Tuchel will continue to be unmoved.
3 - Can Foden play as a False Nine?
Following a raft of changes by Tuchel on 65 minutes, including Bellingham replacing Rogers from the naughty step, England continued to field Saka on the right, while Arsenal colleague Eze came on to occupy the left-hand-side, with Phil Foden - as per Tuchel’s pre-match briefings - playing as as false number nine.
It was instructive to note it was Bellingham who powered out of defence to play the ball to Foden, who in turn fed the exciting Eze who scored a hugely satisfying late second, thereby underlining the strength in depth in Tuchel’s squad.
Speaking after the final whistle, Tuchel said: “We had a good impact from the bench straight away. We brought on quality players, and they wanted to show what they could do.
“They created chances, half chances, and scored in the end. You could see the impact, and it has to stay like this.”
As for Foden, Tuchel was rather more complimentary after the match, saying:“I had the idea several months ago[to play Foden as a False Nine].
“I played against Phil in these kind of positions in PL some years ago and it was tough with his movements, little runs. City were so dominant in the positions in the pockets, half-turns.
“You couldn’t catch him.
“I was hoping to nominate him for the first camp, then he had a difficult spell for City, then came back almost as a No8 but I wanted to see him near the opponent’s box, surrounded by a lot of traffic and I think he did well. In matches where we need to unlock a deep opponent, he could always be a choice.”
4 - Eze is staking a serious claim
The highlight of an underwhelming evening came deep into the second half. The 90th minute to be precise.
Eze was not to be denied after hitting the woodwork moments earlier, and as the clock reached the end of regulation time, the Gunners attacker - signed under the noses of bitter rivals Spurs at the end of the summer transfer window - cut inside to curl a delicious effort past the despairing dive of Rejkovic, and into the top corner of the net, to enliven an unexceptional match and make it 2-0.
Eze, who I also saw score England’s final goal in Riga during the 5-0 rout of Lativa last month on an equally rainy evening in the Baltic States, displayed his maverick tendencies, by never allowing the jittery Serbia backline to settle after the 27-year-old former Arsenal academy youngster came on as substitute to replace the mercurial Rashford on the left.
I also saw Eze score during the Three Lions 3-0 win over Lativa at Wembley back in the spring, and it is clear to see the former Crystal Palace attacker’s progress in the intervening six months.
Whether it’s Mikel Arteta’s attempt to corral Eze into becoming slightly more disciplined with his defensive duties - while being careful not to lose his attacking threat - a package that appeals greatly to Tuchel, or whether it’s simply that Eze is maturing as an attacker, the fact is the Greenwich-born former Eagle has morphed into a genuine threat at international level.
If Eze can keep his form and fitness over the winter and into the spring, then by the time the March international break arrives - if he can maintain such levels in an England shirt - then Tuchel will be hard-pressed to find a reason not to take the lively Arsenal attacker with him to the World Cup.
No wonder Tuchel said after the match, in more of a sweeping statement to all his big name fringe players: “This is not about building a starting XI, it’s about building a team.
“And that means that sometimes, they’re all big players in their club, they’re all used to play, they’re all disappointed. This is normal, but they buy into this idea of building a team and this is what we want, this is what we need, there is no other way around it.
“Only if we’re a strong group who can put the ego behind, who can put the disappointment behind and then contribute and give the coach a headache [about] what to do in the next match, that’s the only way.
“And I like it because it’s natural for this team.”
Next stop is Tirana, to play Albania on Sunday, who qualified for the play-offs after beating Andorra. See you in the Balkans on Friday morning…
Arsenal’s lively Eberechie Eze is staking a serious claim to be on the plane for the 2026 World Cup - after scoring his third goal for Thomas Tuchel this year.
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