Salut!

Premiership football has been pushed out of focus as we all attend to the World Cup qualifiers - and what a week it has been for England! Like everyone else I was amazed by the result in Munich. Not by the fact that England beat Germany, but the margin of 5-1 by which Sven Goran Eriksson's men triumphed.

England followed that up by beating Albania 2-0 at my old club ground, St James' Park, to climb to the top of Group Nine. Qualification is now in their own hands, as they simply need to beat Greece at Old Trafford next month to book their place at next summer's finals in Japan and South Korea.

I am very pleased for England and for football in general, as the World Cup finals need to have all the major nations competing there. But for now it's back to the Premiership this weekend…

Although Villa didn't have anybody in the senior England team this week (Gareth Barry played for the Under-21s), we still have players returning from international duty with their respective countries.

After drawing with Manchester United, we must follow that up by getting at least the same result against another team considered genuine title contenders and therefore continue our positive start to the season. After that we can look forward to UEFA Cup action, and if I am involved then I shall enjoy playing in Europe again.

A bientôt,

David Ginola.

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