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Tashan Deniran-Alleyne

Saka surprise, Xhaka masterclass, Saliba praised as Arsenal youngster earns second promotion

The first round of fixtures in the September international break have now been completed as Mikel Arteta can look forward to welcoming back his senior Arsenal players from next week.

Even with the likes of Ben White, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Fabio Vieira and Gabriel Magalhaes not being called up for international duty, it has certainly been an incident-filled few days for the 10 Gunners senior players selected - and there was even a goal for youngster Charlie Patino for the England U20's.

Of course, the main talking point has centred around Thomas Partey. A late withdrawal from the Ghana starting line-up against Brazil due to a suspected knee injury, it has since been revealed that the midfielder has returned to Arsenal for further assessment ahead of next weekend's North London Derby.

READ MORE: Bergkamp, Henry, Sanchez: Arsenal's top 10 transfers of the Premier League era

Meanwhile, a start for Martin Odegaard was certainly music to the ears of many Gunners supporters and Arteta following his calf injury, although Norway's 2-1 loss against Slovenia on Saturday evening means they have it all to do in their Nations League decider at home to Serbia on Tuesday.

With the other Arsenal internationals competing in UEFA Nations League games or those all-important tune-up fixtures ahead of the winter World Cup, football.london takes a look at how they fared whilst in action for their respective countries over the past few days.

Aaron Ramsdale was an unused substitute as England were beaten 1-0 by Italy on Friday night - a result which has seen Gareth Southgate's side relegated from Group A3 and the Three Lions manager has been criticised for the rather surprising decision to start Bukayo Saka at left-wing back.

Both have remained with the squad ahead of Monday's clash against Germany where Ramsdale will be hopeful of a chance to impress Southgate especially with Jordan Pickford on the sidelines with an injury and not many more opportunities to prove why he should be the number one at the World Cup.

Speaking of Arsenal goalkeepers, summer signing Matt Turner earned praise for his performance despite ending up on the losing side as USA were beaten 2-0 by Japan where Takehiro Tomiyasu turned in a strong performance at centre-back before being granted his early return to London.

An early contender to be the Gunners' biggest winner from the international break has to be Karl Hein. After being promoted to the first-team at the beginning of the season, he's experienced that feeling for a second time in a matter of weeks with Estonia beating Malta 2-1 and have now been promoted to League C in the Nations League.

Kieran Tierney impressed for Scotland in their 3-0 win over Ukraine on Wednesday night which some supporters think confirmed he is 'miles ahead' of Liverpool's Andy Robertson who missed the game through injury and appears to have avoided a scare of his own after being substituted in the first-half of the 2-1 win against the Republic of Ireland on Saturday.

William Saliba replaced Jules Kounde early on in France's 2-0 win over Austria - earning praise from Kylian Mbappe in the process - whilst the general reaction on social media suggests that Granit Xhaka produced a masterclass in midfield as Switzerland shocked Spain.

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