Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford believes his spell with the England Under-21s can help him come back flying to the Premier League as his side bid to avoid relegation.

The stopper has been a revelation for the Black Cats since breaking through last season, making 22 appearances so far this term, all despite missing the festive period due to a knee injury.

In spite of Sunderland’s plight, Pickford’s form has earned him a recall to the England Under-21 fold and he is hoping the mentorship of national No.1 Joe Hart can launch him into the senior ranks.

The 23-year-old is also convinced his spell away can be a boost to Sunderland too, believing the side as a whole can benefit from an international break.

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“I haven’t been there for a while so it’ll be nice to get a couple of games,” he said. “Hopefully we can get a couple of positive results and I can come back flying.

“I want to go there and then come back and focus on the rest of the season with Sunderland, but it’s always a bonus when you go away with England and like I said, hopefully I can come back with some wins ahead of the Euros.

“As a whole group it [the international break] should help us because the lads who don’t go away will get a good week of training, and maybe a couple of days to freshen up as well.

“We’ll all come back flying!”

German legend Lukas Podolski believes Arsenal will have a difficult time finding a replacement for manager Arsene Wenger if he decides to leave at the end of the season.

A large proportion of fans have been calling for Wenger’s time at the Emirates to come to an end, struggling in recent years in both the Premier League and the Champions League.

A particular lowlight was the 10-2 aggregate hammering at the hands of Bayern Munich in the last-16 earlier this month but Podolski admits it’s a struggle not even he saw coming.

The 31-year-old spent three years at the Emirates ending in 2015 and is full of praise for a man who has been at the Arsenal helm since 1996, even though his form in English football was not as promising as some expected.

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“I follow nearly every match – when not live then on social media – and I don’t know what has happened,” said Podolski, who signed off his international career in some style on Wednesday with a thunderbolt in Germany’s 1-0 victory over England.

“Arsene Wenger is a good guy and a good coach. He built this club from nothing to now. It will be interesting what happens in the next few months.

“I don’t know who the guy is that can replace him. He is Arsenal.”

It takes some players a little time to slot in at a new club but not Patrick van Aanholt – he claims he has felt right at home at Crystal Palace since day one.

Van Aanholt moved to Selhurst Park from Sunderland in the January transfer window for an initial fee of £9million, rising to £14million.

Just 24 hours after signing, the left-back made his debut against Bournemouth and scored his first goal for the club in the 1-0 win over Middlesbrough at the end of February.

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And the Dutchman is convinced that the environment at Palace, as well as being a first-team regular at Sunderland for most of the campaign, made the transition to the Eagles an easy one.

“It’s hard to come to a new team and fit in straight away, sometimes you need time,” said van Aanholt.

“However I signed on the Monday and played on the Tuesday and didn’t even train with the team, but because I had been playing every game at Sunderland I was fit so that made it a bit easier for me.

“It has felt like home since I’ve signed and the players have welcomed me. I knew a couple of players beforehand in Jeff [Schlupp], and [Yohan] Cabaye from when he was at Newcastle, as well as Andros Townsend, who I used to play against for Chelsea against Tottenham in the youth team.

“I have my first goal now too so hopefully there is many more to come. It was great to score; I have the freedom to go forward and I started the move myself and finished it with my right foot so I was very happy with that.”

Jack Butland is relishing a return to action before the end of the season, as the Stoke City goalkeeper ramps up his preparation after a nightmare 12 months.

The highly-rated England shot-stopper suffered a serious ankle injury in a friendly against Germany last season, keeping him out for an entire year – and forcing him to watch Lee Grant star in his absence.

But Butland is nearing a return and expects to be ready before the end of the Premier League season, with a few under-23 games lined up in the coming weeks to ease him back into the fold.

“This season’s been a complete washout,” he said.

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“There have been times when you’re waking up in the morning and it’s hurting again, then you go a week and it feels good,” he said.

“You’re stabbing in the dark not knowing what’s causing the issues. I had a dark couple of months. But I found a surgeon, who found that there was something easy to fix.

“I’m now motivated and ready to go. I’m not far off. I’m feeling fit and feeling strong. I’m kicking, diving and jumping and doing everything else I need to do.

“Next week I’ll be joining in with the boys fully. Then it will be down to getting some game time, whether it be behind-closed-doors or an Under-23 game.

“It would be beneficial for everyone, especially for me, if I can get some more games before I put this season to bed. That would be very positive for me.”

Christian Fuchs has hit back at suggestions that Leicester City players were behind the sacking of Claudio Ranieri last month.

The Italian was dismissed less than a year after leading the Foxes to the most unlikely of Premier League titles, with reports that he had lost the dressing room.

It was a sad end for the genial Italian, but Austrian full-back Fuchs insists the decision to get rid of the manager was nothing to do with the players.

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He said: “This is completely far-fetched.

“I can assure you there was no meeting between the players and the owners in the days before the sacking.

“Of course, the owners talked to us after the games but they take decisions on this level on their own. They are businessmen who lead big enterprises, they know what to do.

“Afterwards he [Ranieri] came to the training ground, shook everyone’s hand and wished us all good luck for the rest of the season.

“It might sound matter-of-factly but let me tell you, in my 16 years as a professional I have had 15 different managers. I am very grateful towards Ranieri and the trust he put in me but in the end the players have to accept the owner’s decisions.”

Southampton’s hunt for European football may be falling by the wayside, but Jérémy Pied is delighted just to be back in the first team reckoning on the south coast.

The French defender has missed the entire season so far barring the Saints’ opener against Watford – where he suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury in a 1-1 draw.

After seven months out however, Pied rejoined first team training for the first time on Wednesday.

And with Claude Puel’s side dropping to tenth in the table having lost five of their eight league games since the turn of the year, he is hoping he can have a role in galvanising the team for a final push up the standings.

“I am very happy to come back with the first-team,” said the 28-year-old. “I had some training with the Under-23s two weeks ago, but I am happy to come back with the first-team.

“I feel good and ready to show everybody my best and to give my best for them. It’s been very difficult.

“I’m an ambitious guy, so it has been difficult for me with this injury, but with a lot of work and motivation, and thanks to my teammates and medical staff, everyone in Southampton helped me to have a good rehabilitation.

“Between six and seven months was very long, but today the worst is behind me and I feel good on the pitch and I am really happy to have this good rehabilitation.

“Today I feel good and I am happy and ready, step by step, to show to my teammates and the fans, and everybody who believes in me here, my best and to give my best for them.”

Third-from-bottom Hull City are right in the middle of a Premier League relegation scrap, and manager Marco Silva admits the international break could not have come at a worse time.

The Tigers face both stuttering West Ham and Middlesbrough – the side immediately below them in the table – in their next two matches, and Silva knows if they are to have any hope of survival, wins in those games are vital.

But with ten players away on international duty this week, the 39-year-old Portuguese boss admits his preparations for those crunch clashes will be hampered.

“We have ten players away and, of course, this is not the best situation for us because we would rather be playing again this weekend,” added Silva.

“Some players may only be available to train on the Friday before we play West Ham, but this is the situation. We know what the schedule is and we will work with this.

“We have some big games coming up at home and we need to be ready for these. We believe we can get out of the bottom three and we are doing all we can to keep that goal open. The players also believe and that is important.

“We had a result last weekend that we didn’t deserve – so many details made the difference in that game, but we won’t be using excuses because I prefer to look at my own work.

“I want to improve my team and look at what we need to do to be able to do that. We stay, we fight and we look to take points.

“We lost our last game and that isn’t good for us, but we now need to do our own work ready for the next games.”

Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson insists the Premier League will strike back and become European heavyweights again, after another disappointing campaign in both the Champions League and Europa League.

Leicester City are the only English side left in the last eight of the Champions League, with United maintaining Premier League interest in the Europa League.

Fixture congestion and the competitive nature of England’s top flight have been suggested as reasons for the Premier League’s repeated failure in the competition of late.

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But Ferguson, who led United to two Champions League titles, insists Spain’s current hold on both competitions, which sees Real Madrid and Sevilla as Champions League and Europa League holders respectively, will diminish and English clubs can be a force once more.

”I think success is cyclical. In the ’70s, Ajax and Bayern Munich; ’80s, Liverpool; ’90s Italy, AC Milan. And then England had a great spell,” he said.

“We were in three finals in four years. Now, the dominance is in Spain. There’s no question of that.

“The same question could be asked about why is Bayern Munich not winning the Champions League, why the Italians are not winning it, why the French don’t win it. At the moment, the cycle is with the Spanish teams. And they’re best, that’s why they’re winning it.

“But it can change. [Cristiano] Ronaldo is older, [Lionel] Messi is older – can they replace those players? That will happen. And the cycle will change.”

Attacking talents often scoop up the majority of headlines but James Tomkins claims it is Crystal Palace’s defence that will make or break their season.

Palace looked defensively clueless in the early stages of supposed-saviour Sam Allardyce’s reign but they have turned things round in recent weeks.

The Eagles have now kept three clean sheets on the spin, including a 1-0 victory over Watford last time out.

And defender Tomkins insists that the know-how of Allardyce has helped turn things round for the backline.

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“In recent weeks the boss has taken us to one side on the training ground, both as a defensive unit but also as a team group,” said Tomkins.

“He has had us working on our shape with a massive emphasis being on clean sheets, something which he has always been known for, wherever he has managed.

“It is not just about the back four and the keeper but also those working from the front, sitting in when needed and then breaking out in numbers on counter attacks when the opportunity comes about in games.

“In recent weeks this work has been paying off because to get three consecutive clean sheets in the Premier League just gives us such a great lift and shows how our defensive play is key to our chances.”

They say a team’s personality is a reflection of their manager and Phil Jones certainly believes Jose Mourinho’s fighting spirit is rubbing off on the Manchester United squad.

United played four games in a ten-day spell that thoroughly examined depth of their squad, culminating in last Sunday’s clash with Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium.

The Red Devils dug deep to beat Boro 3-1, despite their hosts threatening to produce a late comeback.

And defender Jones believes the side channelled their feisty manager Mourinho to prove any doubters wrong.

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“There is strength in depth in the squad and it showed,” he said. “It’s good to go into the international break with a win and we are up to fifth [in the table] now.

“It shows the fight in the squad, not literally, but it shows we are prepared to fight for each other. You can’t buy that. It is in everyone. It rubs off on us from the manager.

“It is all about a willingness to win and fight for each other. Whatever formation we play or the tactics we play, ultimately it is about the fight in every player and we are showing that at the moment.

“You can see, this season, we have had times when we’ve had to dig deep; there is a lot of fight in that dressing room and it is positive.”