Exclusive - Gerrard: 'I'd love to see Arteta in the England team'

Steven Gerrard has told talkSPORT he would love to see Merseyside rival Mikel Arteta line up alongside him for England.

The Liverpool star captained the Three Lions to victory against Hungary on Wednesday night and would welcome his Everton rival into the international fold.

Arteta qualifies for England through the residency rule having been in this country for five years, and Gerrard would have no problem with the Spaniard being picked.

The Anfield ace told Drive Time: "I'd certainly love nothing better than to see Mikel Arteta available for England.

"You want to play with the best players, and if it makes the England squad better, of course I'd like to see it.

"I think it happens to most national teams [that they pick non-nationals], but it's up to him if he wants to make himself available.

"Fabio Capello is the man to answer the question because he's the manager, but for me he's an excellent player."

Gerrard's Wembley double against the Hungarians put a smile back on the face of England fans after the disappointment of the World Cup, but the stand-in captain knows there is a lot of work still to do.

He added: "There's nothing we can do about the World Cup now, but we need to try to improve to become a better team moving forward.

"People know things aren't great. We've got to get back to basics and make ourselves hard to beat and, if we do that, we've got the talent to do well in major tournaments."

There has been much debate this week about whether Capello is the man to take England forward, and stories have emerged that he refused to speak to his players in the build-up to Wednesday night's game.

But Gerrard has rubbished those reports. He insisted: "It's not true at all. He’s close to the players and we talk to him day in, day out. There are lots of rumours but he gets on well with all the players."

What do you think? Should England call up Arteta? Or should the England team be for Englishmen only? Leave us your comments below...