England’s under 21s warmed up for a big summer with a thumping win over Azerbaijan. England ran out 7-0 winners in a friendly, which will lift their expectation and confidence ahead of this summer’s European Championships.

Michael Mancienne and Craig Gardener scored goals sandwiched between an own goal to put the home side 3-0 up before a brace from Kieran Gibbs, another own goal and a final strike from Jack Rodwell ended the match at 7-0. England truly outclassed their opponents and never looked under threat.

There was a slight cause for a giggle when Joe Lewis, a goalkeeper at Peterborough, had to play up front in place for one of the injured England midfielders. However, the match had been well rapped up before this point so the risk of playing a player out of position was far less.

It will be a big summer for this group of players and they will fancy their chances after this sort of result. For any other side casually looking at the results of another, this will send a few shock waves across Europe.

Stuart Pearce said after the game: “I can’t ask for any more than that. Lee Cattermole had a slight injury and we’d used all our outfield subs so I had to do it. I didn’t want to seem disrespectful to the opposition and take a player off without putting one on. But I hoped they didn’t realise he was a goalkeeper. Joe thought he ran around more than Fraizer Campbell but we’ll look back at the video to see.”

For a long time the group of players just beneath the first team have looked high quality and a good bet to push the bigger sides in Europe. The performance was efficient and combined rigidity with a lot of talent, something that will please the boss no end.

England will want to banish the memories of a penalty shoot out loss to the Netherlands in the last major competition they played in and there will be a couple of players who will feel like they have a point to prove and will be wanting to make sure those feelings do not surface again.

However, the point is that this was not a high calibre team that England were playing against and the result reflected that. When England come up against the French, the Germans and the Spanish it will be a completely different proposition. They will not be able to get away with a lot of the things that they could last night and if they want to have any chance of winning the Euros this summer then they will have to quickly work this out.

The result proved that it is within the capabilities of the side to do well but it only reflected a performance against a poor team. If England can gel well enough and reach a point where they are ready to go and beat the best teams in the world 7-0 then everyone will be talking about a whole different story.

Arsenal may well be a side full of promise but when oh when are they going to start to deliver?

This was just one of the questions posed following their comprehensive defeat in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Manchester United.

Was it really a semi-final? The Arsenal fans who started to leave the Emirates Stadium after the Red Devils slotted home their second within eleven minutes certainly didn’t think so.

Afterwards, of course, manager Arsene Wenger was full of apologies for the huge disappointment. It’s unlikely that his loyal followers will turn their back on him but the vultures are already starting to circle and crowing for real rewards. This is the fourth consecutive season without any silver-ware and Arsenal’s memories of lifting the 2005 FA Cup are rapidly fading.

Going into the second leg with a 0-1 deficit, Arsenal were still full of hope that they could score and at least force extra time or penalties. But the huge gap between Manchester United’s solid, experienced team and the young Gunners was just too wide. Manchester United were dominant and magnificent and had Fergie jumping off the bench for joy on three occasions. The man leading the way was Cristiano Ronaldo, described by his boss afterwards as “simply magnificent”.

Granted, Arsenal were unlucky. In only the eighth minute of play, defender Kieran Gibbs slipped, allowing the South Korean captain Ji-Sing Park to slot home the ball. It was a cruel blow for Arsenal but more was to follow. Just three minutes later, a cracking 50-yarder from Ronaldo made it 2-0 to Manchester United and effectively sealed Arsenal’s fate. Liverpool may well be the come-from-behind specialists but there were few who harboured any belief that Arsenal could score four goals.

Park’s goal was his first for Manchester United in Europe but, by contrast, Ronaldo’s 11th minute blaster took his tally for the season to 25, a brilliant achievement given he was injured for some of it. Ronaldo’s free kick came from a soft foul but the referee awarded Manchester United the advantage and gave the fed-up Arsenal fans a chance to catch the early train home.

Ironically, Manchester United hadn’t actually beaten Arsenal at the Emirates in their last few encounters but all that changed in the first eleven minutes of the game. Wenger sat looking bewildered as United ran riot around his young team. We know they can play some beautiful football when given the chance but United were simply dominant and ruthless. Some felt Arsenal’s goal-keeper Almunia should have saved Ronaldo’s long-range shot but it dipped and span and he was probably out-sighted by his own wall until it was just too late.

Coming back after the interval,. Arsenal looked no better and had to endure the lethal combination of Rooney and Ronaldo, with the latter making no mistake with Rooney’s cross setting up Ronaldo for his second and Manchester United’s third. Game over. Manchester United were through to the Champions League final in Rome on May 27.

As always, there was a twist in the tale as Darren Fletcher picked up a red game for allegedly fouling Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas in the box. The penalty was slotted home by Robin van Persie to give Arsenal a consolation goal. There was huge disappointment for Fletcher who misses his dream of the final, undeservedly so as he went for the ball, not the player. There is, of course, no right of appeal which, as one of the commentators rightly complained, is ridiculous given you have a right of appeal if you got a parking ticket outside the ground!

Manchester United will make history if they successfully defend their Champions League trophy in Rome and Sir Alex Ferguson is just the man to do it.

Arsenal meantime are re-grouping and pondering experience over potential and youth. Just how long do the Gunners have to wait until that promise bears fruit?

Thanks to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, Chelsea has made it to the FA Cup Final after beating their hated London neighbours 2-1 in front of 88,000 fanatics in today’s semi final at Wembley. I suppose some credit can be given to Chelsea too.

Fabianski looked out of his league right from the opening whistle and was caught out of his net on numerous occasions. Perhaps he mistakenly put down the wrong team on his betting slip before the match and was trying to rectify that on the pitch with his odd decisions and positioning. But, it was the Polish international’s 24th birthday, so God only know what he got up to last night. However, somebody should tell him he’s the one who should be receiving presents not giving them out as he did with Chelsea.

Wenger, who, I think is extremely overrated as a manager, will probably be raked over the coals by Arsenal supporters for his team selection, tactics, and substitutions for the game. For some reason Arshavin started on the bench and then Adebayor was taken off in the 83rd minute and replaced by Bendter, And funnily enough, it only took Chelsea about 30 seconds to go ahead for good as Drogba sealed the deal in the 84th as he easily rounded an onrushing Fabianski who was yards out of his area and deposited the ball into the empty net. Of course Wenger had no clue what to do next as he had just taken his top scorer off the pitch.

Theo Walcott, one of only two English players on the pitch for Arsenal (Kieran Gibbs, being the other), put the Gunners ahead in the 18th minute after his weak shot struck Chelsea defender Ashley Cole’s hand and dribbled past keeper Petr Cech.

Florent Malouda tied it up 15 minutes later and Chelsea looked more likely to score again as Anelka hit the post shortly after. It looked like Arsenal were content with a 1-1 score line and were trying to reach the 90 minute mark, while Chelsea wanted the end the affair without having to go to extra time and possibly penalty kicks.

Chelsea won’t know who they play until tomorrow (April 19th), when Premier League leaders Manchester United take on sixth-place Everton at Wembley again. The groundskeepers probably won’t get much sleep overnight though as the pitch was coming up all over the place. Wenger, of course, made sure he placed blame on the state of the field during his post game TV interview.

Chelsea could still possibly pull of a treble on the quiet this year as they have a shot at the EPL championship, the FA Cup and the Champions League, where they play Barcelona next. Interim manager has done a great job with the team and I’m sure the club will try and entice the Dutchman into staying after the season ends. However, Hiddink is adamant that he’s going to return to his other job as the manager of the Russian national team.

Meanwhile, it looks like Arsenal will likely end up in fourth place in the league, but have been impressive in the Champions League, where they take on Manchester United next.