Well, what does that tell us?

Two three-nil victories on the bounce, this one against Russia and last saturday's victory over Israel. Things now look a lot brighter for England, now they have got six points after their last two home games in their attempt to qualify for the European Championships Finals next summer. 

What have we seen in the past three hours of football? We've seen Gareth Barry perform outstandingly well and Michael Owen back on top form. Emile Heskey appears to be a great foil for Owen and it seems that they have been in control of the past two games completely. 

As is usually the case in qualifying games, England produced the results when it mattered. If they can transfer that to actual finals, then that would be amazing. They will come up against far better competition than Israel and Russia on their way to winning the European Championships, however.

Coach Steve McClaren now has something of a prickly problem on his hands. Does he drop Emile Heskey in favour of Peter Crouch? Owen and Heskey play stupidly well together, so why change something that has clearly worked so very well?

Both Hargreaves and Lampard were unfit and unable to play in this or the Israel game. When they are fit, do they really deserve a place ahead of Gareth Barry? When David Beckham becomes available again, do we really believe he can perform better than Shaun Wright-Philips?

The last two games have proved that you can pick a match winning side on a budget. Now that we have a team that is good at winning and finishing off opponents, do we really want to change it?