Ten things we spotted during the international break

Ahead of the Premier League's return, football writer Ben Bloom picks out 10 things he noticed during the international break.

Wood just cannot stop scoring

When will the Chris Wood juggernaut grind to a halt?

The Nottingham Forest striker has been in the form of his life this season, firing eight goals for a club who have defied predictions to sit fifth in the Premier League.

Despite having to fly to the other side of the world, the 32-year-old continued that hot streak for New Zealand, first scoring twice in an 8-1 win over Vanuatu and then adding a hat-trick in an 8-0 thrashing of Samoa.

Wood's hat-trick v Samoa

Even allowing for the lowly opposition ranking - Vanuatu are 157th in the world, with Samoa 186th - it maintained a remarkable run for Wood, who has now scored 12 goals for club and country in nine matches since the start of October.

Wood was named EA SPORTS Player of the Month for October, becoming the first New Zealander and Forest player to win the award.

Haaland strikes again

Not content with blazing a trail towards his third straight Premier League Golden Boot award, Erling Haaland continues to break new ground on the international stage as well.

The Manchester City striker leads the Premier League goalscoring charts with 12 in 11 matches this season.

And a month after becoming Norway’s record goalscorer, he added another in a 4-1 win over Slovenia and three more goals to help his nation thrash Kazakhstan 5-0.

Those strikes ensured Haaland is now clear at the top of the UEFA Nations League goalscoring standings, having netted seven times in six matches.

The international against Kazakhstan was also Haaland’s 30th competitive outing for his country, during which he has notched a remarkable 30 goals and three assists.

By comparison, Cristiano Ronaldo’s tally at the same stage in his international career was 10 goals and 15 assists.

New names on scoresheet for England

If one of Lee Carsley’s briefs was to ensure Thomas Tuchel has options at his disposal when he begins his reign as England's new head coach on 1 January 2025, the interim boss successfully delivered in abundance with the final two matches of his tenure.

First came Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones’s maiden international goal with a delightful backheel flick for England’s third in their 3-0 win over Greece.

Jones' sublime maiden England goal

That was then followed by four first-time England scorers at Wembley as Carsley’s side eased to a 5-0 victory over 10-man Republic of Ireland.

Anthony Gordon, Conor Gallagher, Jarrod Bowen and Taylor Harwood-Bellis all grabbed their first international goals.

For Newcastle United winger Gordon, his celebration proved especially poignant. Last month he met young Newcastle fan Ivy, who was diagnosed with hyper IGE syndrome., a rare genetic disorder that affects the immune system.

After being mobbed by his team-mates, Gordon turned and did a cartwheel, keeping good a promise he made to Ivy when the pair met.

Gordon's special celebration

Southampton defender Harwood-Bellis is engaged to Leah Keane, daughter of Ireland and Manchester United legend Roy Keane, but his future father-in-law joked the marriage might soon be off.

“It is not done and dusted yet,” he told ITV. “Things can change very quickly in the Keane household, let me tell you.”

Ghana players to stay at clubs after AFCON failure

The 24 teams to play at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations have been determined, with most of the continent’s heavyweights - including Egypt, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal and Cameroon - confirming their spots.

However, Ghana will be shock absentees after their failure to advance was confirmed even before the final group-stage match of qualification.

The four-time AFCON winners have been involved in all of the last 10 versions of the tournament, but will not feature for the first time since 2004.

Their absence means players such as Antoine Semenyo (AFC Bournemouth), Mohammed Kudus (West Ham United), Thomas Partey (Arsenal), Tariq Lamptey (Brighton & Hove Albion) and Jordan Ayew (Leicester City) will all remain with their clubs rather than play in the tournament, which will be held in Morocco from 21 December until 18 January 2026.

Injury concerns mount at Man Utd and Arsenal

The final international break of 2024 was hit by a raft of injury withdrawals even before it had begun.

No fewer than nine players dropped out of Carsley’s final England squad, while other national sides suffered a similar fate.

But the problems did not end there.

Having struggled for game time after a toe injury at the start of the season, Man Utd centre-back Victor Lindelof lasted only 26 minutes of Sweden’s 2-1 win over Slovakia before he was forced off with an apparent groin problem.

Arsenal have had more than their fair share of injuries this season and Leandro Trossard now looks likely to join the list of absentees after trudging off the pitch during the first half of Belgium’s 1-0 defeat to Israel.

Fellow Belgian Romeo Lavia also returned early to Chelsea, Wolverhampton Wanderers' defender Santiago Bueno withdrew from duty with Uruguay and Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk missed the Netherlands’ second match.

Watching brief for international absentees

For Premier League players who were either not selected for international duty or were unable to play due to injury, there was plenty of sport to keep them busy during the international break.

Marcus Rashford flew to the United States where he sat courtside for New York Knicks’ 124-122 NBA victory over Brooklyn Nets.

Reece James and Aaron Ramsdale both stayed closer to home, heading to the Allianz Stadium where they watched England’s rugby union team fall to a 29-20 defeat against South Africa.

Meanwhile, after pulling out of the England squad due to injury, Cole Palmer went to Edgeley Park to see Stockport County beat fellow League One new boys Wrexham 1-0 with both clubs in the hunt for promotion.

Cole feels the cold at Stockport County

Digne is France’s set-piece king

In what is expected to be the final international break before Paris Saint-Germain defender Lucas Hernandez returns to action, Aston Villa’s Lucas Digne could scarcely have done more to make the France left-back slot his permanent possession.

Making his 50th appearance for France, Digne proved to be a set-piece master in his country’s 3-1 win over Italy.

His crosses from a corner and free-kick provided Adrien Rabiot with two headed goals, while Digne also struck the crossbar with another free-kick that rebounded in off goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.

“I feel as though I’m playing the best football of my career,” Digne said earlier this month.

France and Villa are reaping the benefits.

Scotland’s Premier League stars launch great escape

Before their final two Nations League group-stage matches, Scotland were winless in four with only one point to their name and staring at relegation from League A.

Step forward Villa’s John McGinn and Liverpool’s Andy Robertson - with no shortage of help from the hugely impressive Liverpool loanee Ben Doak, who is currently at Middlesbrough.

McGinn came off the bench to grab a late winner in a match against Croatia that will be best remembered for Doak giving Man City’s Josko Gvardiol a torrid time down Scotland’s right.

Doak and McGinn then combined to put Scotland ahead against Poland, before Robertson’s bullet header in stoppage time earned a 2-1 victory and a relegation playoff against a League B runner-up in March.

Robertson's winner v Poland

Not to be discouraged by his run-in with Doak, Gvardiol produced Croatia’s only goal in their 1-1 draw with Portugal that maintained their League A status.

Amorim’s first Man Utd training session

While his international stars were off representing their countries, Amorim began his tenure as Man Utd head coach.

To the excitement of United’s fans, the club released a seven-minute video from Amorim’s first training session, leading to much speculation about how things might look under his guidance when the Premier League returns.

Amorim gets down to work

The footage appeared to confirm that he will look to implement his favoured 3-4-3 formation, with Leny Yoro, Jonny Evans and Luke Shaw occupying the back line in training.

Antony played as right wing-back and Tyrell Malacia left wing-back, with Casemiro and Kobbie Mainoo in the two deeper midfield positions.

Much was also made of footage highlighting the intense work-rate of the players when chasing back on Amorim’s command.

How much truth there was in the video offering will become clear when United travel to Ipswich Town on Sunday afternoon.

Dramatic all-Liverpool showdowns

There were familiar faces, and no shortage of drama, for a number of Liverpool’s players as they turned out for their countries during the international break.

Van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch all featured for the Netherlands in a 4-0 Nations League win over Dominik Szoboszlai's Hungary that was overshadowed by the worrying collapse of Hungary’s assistant coach Adam Szalai in the first half.

The match was halted for 13 minutes, with Van Dijk comforting a visibly upset Szoboszlai.

Thankfully, Szalai later reported that he was “doing well”.

Meanwhile, in South America, Darwin Nunez’s Uruguay edged out a Colombia team captained by Luis Diaz as both sides looked to maintain their FIFA World Cup qualification places.

Colombia's 97th-minute equaliser looked to have forced a 2-2 draw, but Man Utd’s Manuel Ugarte produced the winner for Uruguay in the final minute of stoppage time.