Unusually Arsenal had only 2 players in the side, but they made their presence felt, getting 3 of the goals, at least 2 assists, and the man-of-the-match award.

With Pires injured and Vieira taking a rest, it was left to Wiltord and Henry to lend the French side a touch of Arsenal flair. Sylvain scored the first on 37 minutes, a close range blast having received the ball from a Zidane corner. Henry made it 2 a minute later with a 20 yard curler. The Maltese keeper made a string of great saves to restrict France to 2-0 at half-time.

Oft-rumoured Arsenal target David Trezeguet completed a hattrick of bad misses moments into the second half when he hit the post from 2 yards out. 10 minutes after the break Henry got his second with a fine header from a Wiltord cross, and soon after Zidane scored a penalty to make it 4. Towards the end of the match Trezeguet managed a tap-in (thanks to Henry) and Zidane wrapped it up with a header.

France coach Jacques Santini confirmed the view of most observers that Henry was man-of-the-match by a country kilometre. "He is playing at his best and he is well above the level of all the others guys at the moment", he said after the game. See Reuters for more praise of Henry (and Zidane, to be fair).

France play Israel in Palermo on Wednesday.

England did not impress, winning only 2-0 away in Liechtenstein and with the home side getting a good few chances. But with Seaman Cole and Campbell all injured there was no Arsenal involvement in the match. Francis Jeffers did not even make it to the bench. Although Rooney got a bit of a game in the second half, one still gets the feeling that Eriksson doesn't have any attacking ideas beyond the Owen-Heskey partnership.

Gio van Bronckhorst played in Holland's 1-1 home draw with the Czech Replublic (goals from Jan Koller and Ruud van Nistelrooy). Gio hirt his ankle and is doubtful for their next match against Moldova on Wednesday. Hopefully he'll be ok again by Arsenal's next match (at Villa on Saturday), and hopefully Dick Advocaat won't take any chances on Wednesday.

Graham Barrett was promoted to the senior Irish squad. But I don't think he got into the side for the 2-1 win in Georgia (was he even on the bench?)

Derek adds...
In Friday's U21 matches, Pennant came on as sub 20 mins from time during England's 4-2 loss to Portugal, Svard played from the start in Denmark's 1-0 win in Romania, and Aliadiere has returned to Arsenal suffering from pain in his adductor muscles.

Rupe adds...
Franny Jeffers (along with Jermaine Jenas) has been shunted from the senior England squad into David Platt's U21 squad. The decision was made by Eriksson on Sunday, in the light of the unavailability of Shami Ameobi and Michael Carrick for the U21 match (also against Turkey) on Tuesday.

Also, Sol Campbell has joind up with the Sven's squad who have moved to Newcastle to prepare for Wednesday's match. He will train on Monday and is expected to be in strong contention for a starting place against Turkey.