John Stones, Jonjo Shelvey and Jamie Vardy to start for England in San Marino

England have won all six of their qualifiers so far, scoring 18 goals and conceding just three.

With a six-point lead over second-placed Switzerland and a nine-point advantage over Slovenia in third, a win against San Marino would confirm the Three Lions' participation in France next summer.

Hodgson announced during his pre-match press conference that he will give a chance to players such as Everton defender Stones - who was the subject of summer-long interest from Chelsea during the transfer window but ultimately stayed put - and Swansea star Shelvey, back in the squad after a lengthy absence.

It would also be a competitive England debut for Vardy, who impressed for Leicester during the 2014-15 season and scored the Foxes' first league goal of the new season in a 4-2 win over Sunderland on August 8.

"It's a fact of life, the transfer window brings about this speculation," said Hodgson about Stones. "He's done exceptionally well, hasn't he?

"The way he's handled it at Everton has been quite fantastic. He's been 100% concentrated, focused and motivated to play since he's been with us. It won't affect his play."

On Shelvey, Hodgson added: "When he got his cap against San Marino last time he was in another good period in his career, but a lot has happened since then.

"He's left Liverpool, joined Swansea, improved all the time he's been at Swansea. It's not unusual it's taken him a while to reach the level we knew he could reach.

"He's still only 22, a very experienced 22-year-old, but he can look forward to a long England career if he continues the progress he's been making at Swansea."

Hodgson plans more experiments with new players once he is certain of a place in France, even if that means risking his team's 100 per cent record.

"We'd like to win the 10 games, that's within our grasp,' he explained.

"If we do qualify, either tomorrow or against Switzerland, then it's not necessarily so that I'd put the perfect 10 in front of the chance to blood some new players against Estonia and Lithuania next month."

Hodgson confirmed that there will not be any out-and-out experimenting until England's place at the finals in France is 100% nailed down. That means Stones, Shelvey and Vardy will likely slot into a more familiar XI.

We had a go at predicting the other eight names that will start the match, and we think there's two possible ways they will be instructed by Hodgson to approach the contest.

1) Lay siege and go for a huge win - Rooney may be two goals away from Bobby Charlton's England record, but if he is willing to join Shelvey and Raheem Sterling in a three-man attacking midfield with Vardy as target man and the full-backs (probably Nathaniel Clyne and Kieran Gibbs, though the left-back slot is a coin toss between the Arsenal man and Luke Shaw) providing wide assistance, England could aim for a cricket score. That would really settle their new boys into the international set-up with a huge confidence boost.

James Milner and Michael Carrick could sit back and protect the centre-backs (Gary Cahill is favourite to line up next to Stones) as the attacking five go for the throat and look to quickly and ruthlessly overwhelm the outmatched San Marino. It provides a tiny window of risk that otherwise would be non-existent, but confirming qualification with a win of six, seven or more goals would do wonders for the confidence of the players and the spirit of the fans.

2) Keep the ball and the goals will come - More likely is Hodgson setting up in a similar fashion to the home fixture a year ago - in more of a 4-4-2 set-up, albeit with flexibility, England could deny the minnows a sniff of the ball and just patiently wait for their approach to pay off. Gibbs/Shaw and Clyne would be useful but more measured and selective on the overlap, with Milner and Carrick conducting traffic from the middle and Shelvey and Sterling swapping flanks at intervals.

Shelvey can play a flexible, free-roaming attacking game but if his relative inexperience shows, he can swap with Milner and play through the middle where he has been excelling at Swansea. Rooney would partner Vardy up front, whether in a traditional duo or more likely in the 'number 10' role in order to help facilitate more sustained attacking periods.