Villa blogger Dave Bytheway analyses the impact the club could have on the England team at the World Cup if qualification is confirmed next week.

After a start to the season as questionable as the gender of a certain 800m world champion, we find ourselves three games in with six points on the board.

Any Villa fan would have taken that if they were honest, and the deadline day signings of James Collins and Richard Dunne means things are looking a little rosier than on August 15!

OK, so we went out of Europe last Thursday, leaving me a little open to abuse from my mates who support the other teams from either side of Dudley, but maybe it could be a kind of hidden blessing?

We will play no less than 19 fewer games than if we were to have lifted the Europa League trophy next May, so squad size will no longer play a part on the league challenge.

That old chestnut of an excuse can’t be used any more!

This international break couldn’t have come at a worse time with our confidence high, but one beauty of watching England nowadays is the claret and blue contingent involved that keeps getting bigger.

I have followed football all of my life, and I can honestly say we have never had so many players so close to going to a World Cup.

Over the years I have seen players like Kevin Richardson, Darius Vassell, Tony Daley, David Platt, Paul Merson and so on appear for England, but never have so many been consistently involved.

In this current squad we have Emile Heskey, James Milner and Ashley Young, but looking through our squad there are many more who could still be on the plane to South Africa at the end of the season.

Luke Young, Curtis Davies, Stephen Warnock and Gabby Agbonlahor have all been in and around previous squads and, with England coach Fabio Capello making regular trips to Villa Park, they will have their chances to impress.

We certainly have a good homegrown backbone in our side nowadays, and it’s looking very positive for representation from Villa in future games for our nation.

Capello has done a great job with England, and the support for the side is returning quickly. Since the dark days under Steve McClaren, the FA made the brave decision to install the Italian as the new gaffer.

Since that day I don’t think anyone has questioned that decision at all, and the new style of football is bringing great results. Hopefully on Wednesday night we will be qualified, and everyone can get back to enjoying international football again.

Back closer to home, we beat a decent enough Fulham side on Sunday. Again, our manager Martin O’Neill stuck with the trusted 4-5-1 system that bought so much success against Liverpool.

But this time, with the same personnel, the system was much more like a 4-3-3, with Milner and Ashley Young playing up top with Gabby.

At times in the game Milner was actually up front on his own, showing that the line-up can work as effectively at home as it does when used as a counter attacking option away.

Next week we travel to St Andrew’s to face Birmingham for the first time since they got promotion. In my next blog i’ll talk about that one, I can’t bring myself to really think about it yet to be honest. It’s good to have the derbies back though, and it can only be good for the region.

Have a good weekend, and enjoy watching the Villa boys take the country to the next World Cup!

Up the Villa!