The Premier League is having its first international hiatus this weekend with the club stars jetting off to represent their national sides.

The first break of the season is often the most maligned by fans, who are just about getting into the rhythm of the new year.

While international fixtures such as World Cup qualifiers do an alright job of whetting our footballing appetites, they just don't quite match up to the heater-skelter nature of the club landscape.

So, with that in mind, we thought we would ignore all the international action going on, and focus back on our bread and butter - the Premier League.

The rise of the fullback has been a major part of the evolution of the game in recent years, with the outside defenders becoming increasingly more important to the style of a side's play.

There are often fierce debates over who is the best, so we thought we'd have our best go at settling those debates by ranking the Premier League fullbacks in a handy tier maker.

World Class

World class is a term that is batted about far too often these days so we kept this club exclusive.

Andrew Robertson
Trent Alexander-Arnold 
Luke Shaw

Great

This lot are incredibly talented footballers, but we feel they fall just short of the heady heights of world class. 

Kyle Walker
Reece James

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(Enter Giveaway)

Decent

One of the most populated classes on the list packed with very handy fullbacks who are more than capable of turning any and every game they play in on its head.

James Justin
Kieran Tierney 
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
Ben Chilwell
Luke Ayling 
Sergio Reguilon

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Joao Cancelo
Matt Targett 
Seamus Coleman
Vladimir Coufal 
Timothy Castagne 
Ricardo Perreira 
Nelson Semedo
Kostas Tsimikas

One for the future

While these lads might not be the finished product just yts, it would come as no surprise to see them tearing up the Premier League in a few years' time.

Tariq Lamptey 

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Ryan Ait Nouri
Kyle Walker-Peters 
Brandon Williams
Max Aarons

Meh

No offence to the 'meh' squad, but they're just not the kind of footballers that you'd be massively overjoyed to see on a  team sheet.

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Alex Telles
Patrick van Aanholt
Aaron Cresswell
Lucas Digne
Nathaniel Clyne
Matt Doherty 
Charlie Taylor
Matt Lowton
Rico Henry
Adam Masina
Jeremy Ngakia