England: Zaha and Wilshere are Hodgson's surprises

Wilfried Zaha is making the step up to the senior England squad

As England prepare to play Sweden, Christian Crowther puts the squad under the microscope...

These are heady times for Crystal Palace's 20-year-old winger Wilfried Zaha.  

In just a few days, Zaha has been lauded by his new boss on television, received a personal plea from Didier Drogba to commit his international future to Ivory Coast, and been called up to play for England.

One thing is for sure, if England can keep hold of the precocious talent from the Championship, the future is looking unequivocally brighter. 

Freshly appointed Eagles manager Ian Holloway has clearly been blown away by the youngsters' skills since catching a look at the player close up. 

"Have I seen anybody like him? No, not in my whole career I haven't. He does it both ways, with his left and with his right. He lures you in and teases you and, before you know it, he's done something," said Holloway. 

With the withdrawal of both Aaron Lennon and Theo Walcott from the squad and in light of Ivory Coast's pursuit, you'd expect Roy Hodgson to give Zaha the chance to feature on the right side at some point on Wednesday.

England can be found at 3.185/40 to make it a hat-trick of wins over Sweden inside a calendar year when they run out in Stockholm.

The other big talking point is the call-up of Arsenal's Jack Wilshere so soon after his comeback from 17 agonising months on the sidelines. 

Hodgson is visibly keen to get the 20-year-old reacclimatised to Three Lions life ahead of the next set of qualifiers and it's almost a certainty that the Gunner will start in one of the central midfield berths.

Tom Huddlestone's run in the Tottenham midfield and Steven Gerrard's possible absence with a knock might just get the Spurs man a run out in that area too, but Gerrard will be anxious to take part and earn what would be his 100th cap.

Hodgson will almost certainly deploy a five man midfield following the withdrawals of both Wayne Rooney and Jermain Defoe this week, leaving Danny Welbeck as the main candidate to plough a lone furrow up top. 

The Manchester United ace can be backed at 3.7511/4 to get on the scoresheet at any time against the Swedes. 

The defence is one area where Hodgson tends to stick rather than twist and Phil Jagielka should be partnered by either Joleon Lescott or Gary Cahill.

Jagielka's Everton team-mate Leighton Baines should get the nod at left-back and Glen Johnson looks favourite to play right-back following Kyle Walker's withdrawal.