John Terry believes the future for England is bright after seeing Arsenal's wonderkids in action and insists English youngsters are blossoming in west as well as north London.

Arsenal's 6-0 Carling Cup victory over Sheffield United has been the talking point of the week, not least because their team had an average age of just 19 and included six young Englishmen, including 16-year-old goalscorer Jack Wilshere.

Now Terry says the performance should give England supporters, already on a high after last month's stunning 4-1 victory over Croatia, hope of a bright future.

The England captain said: “I've been very encouraged by seeing that game and it's great for English football.

“We're seeing Arsene Wenger having the confidence to put his young players out but it's not just Arsenal.

“Our reserves at Chelsea, with a lot of English players, went to Arsenal recently and beat them. We've got a lot of good English youngsters at our place as well and I'm sure a lot of other teams have too.

“I think managers want to see young English players do well. Certainly at our place I love it when the young English guys come over and really make a big impact in training. It's a great advert for English football and good news for England.”

England next face Kazakhstan at home and Belarus away in just over two weeks' time and all the attention will be on another young Arsenal talent — 19-year-old hat-trick hero Theo Walcott.

Terry, speaking at a sponsoredbyyou.com event organised by England sponsors Nationwide Building Society, said of Walcott: “I was very impressed and I think I saw him come of age in the two games [against Andorra and Croatia].

"He opened up in training a few times, really got behind the defence and gave the manager a problem.

"He was rewarded with a place in the starting line-up."

“Now he's fitting in well. On previous trips he's been a little bit quiet and I think we all went through that stage when we first got into the England squad.

“But once you get in and establish yourself you feel more comfortable and it showed in his performance.”

Terry takes Chelsea to Stoke for the first time in Premier League history tomorrow and will again be partnered by Alex in central defence in the absence of Ricardo Carvalho.

Phil Scolari is also expected to recall Jose Bosingwa, Ashley Cole, John Obi Mikel, Joe Cole and Nicolas Anelka having rested them all for the 4-0 Carling Cup victory at Fratton Park.