West Ham United fans will have been delighted to see Declan Rice on the scoresheet when England beat Italy last week but it was arguably Emerson who was the Hammers' star performer of the international break.

Who was West Ham's best player during the international break?

While Rice did fire Gareth Southgate's side ahead against Italy and sent them on their way to an impressive win, the midfielder wasn't actually that impressive from a defensive point of view, as he managed just one tackle and one interception in the 90 minutes, while he would win just one of his four duels.

Sofascore would award the midfielder a strong 7.2/10 rating for his performance at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium but that was clearly impacted by his early goal from an England corner, as his return of no successful dribbles and 86% pass accuracy suggests that his overall display could have been far better.

While Emerson was left on the bench by Roberto Mancini for the game against the Three Lions, the £95k-per-week full-back started in the 2-0 win against Malta and was one of the best players on the pitch.

As per Sofascore, the former Chelsea defender would earn an impressive 7.7/10 rating for his performance, with only Sandro Tonali (8.1/10) rated higher of every player to feature in the game from both sides.

The 28-year-old looked extremely impressive from both an attacking and a defensive point of view, as he registered a haul of four key passes in the 90 minutes, while he also completed three tackles and won six out of seven of his duels in the game.

It hasn't been an easy start to life at the London Stadium for Emerson but his performance against Malta emphasises what he can do when at his best, so David Moyes must now find a way of unlocking the Italian as he aims to keep the Hammers in the Premier League this season.

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Across his 14 top-flight appearances so far this campaign, the left-back has averaged just 0.5 key passes, 0.3 dribbles and 1.1 tackles per game, an indication of how much he raised his game during the international break.

Once lauded as "unbelievable" by former Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel, the talented defender was arguably West Ham's top performer during the international break and if he can translate that form into strong Premier League displays, then he could be a big player for Moyes in the battle for survival.