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Striker right
By James Beattie
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
It was inevitable that the big talking point of our win over Arsenal was the penalty and Sol Campell's subsequent sending-off.The debate will rage long and hard as to the rights or wrongs of Paul Durkin's decision, but as a striker, I've got my own views.
A striker using skill, pace or anticipation to get goal side of a defender has earned the right to have a strike at goal. If he is unfairly denied that opportunity then it is only right that the defender should be punished.
People will argue there is a difference between a defender cynically hacking a striker down from behind, and a genuine attempt to play the ball. There is, but even that genuine attempt will invariably be made from the wrong angle because the defender is trying to correct or retrieve a situation where the striker has got the wrong side of him.
Cynical or unintentional, the outcome is still the same. The striker has been denied a scoring opportunity.
Supporters pay their money to see goals scored, and Fifa brought in these rule changes a couple of years ago to assist that.
It places the emphasis on defenders to be cuter in covering and marking, and means they have to be more selective in where and how they make their challenges.
Having seen the replays of Sol's challenge on Agustin, I don't think anyone can say it wasn't a foul.
If it's a foul and he is the last defender, the rules say he has to go off. The referee has no choice.
In the heat of the moment the referee has to make a decisioin. The decision he made was that it was a foul and it follows from there that Sol had to go. The referee has got no leeway.
We're determined not to let the controversy surrounding that incident take the gloss off a great win.
We get used to not getting credit when we take a big scalp. It's nearly always seen that the big club had an off day. But it was nice to see that a lot of the media gave us due credit and said we deserved to beat Arsenal.
Of course the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United are going to be in the shake-up at the end of the season.
But it's also heartening to look at the table and see the likes of Everton, Blackburn and ourselves in positions that most people would not have expected us to be in.
David Moyes has done a great job at Everton. He's shown what can be achieved by hard work and by building a great team spirit.
A great spirit is something we have in common with Everton and that counts for a lot for those teams who don't have the financial resources of the mega clubs.
It also shows that the transfer window doesn't have to be a disaster for clubs.
It's providing an interesting test for managers and coaches who have to stick with the players they have got and find ways of getting the best out of them until the window opens. Return to index
Dealing with the fear factor
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
Our last two away games have really taken us into the lions' den.They do not come any bigger than Manchester United at Old Trafford, and Newcastle at St James' Park.
They are not just the two biggest grounds in the country but fervent cauldrons, vast temples to football that can be terrifying if you let them.
But instead of intimidation, you hope playing in front of crowds that size provide you with inspiration.
It can be scary the first time you do it. The hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and little things like making mistakes in front of 50-60,000 people go through your mind.
You really notice the difference when you go out to warm up.
There is hardly anyone in the ground, you hear the music on the public address system and the announcements. It's quite a sedate atmosphere.
But the next time you come out for kick-off, it's into a wall of noise.
It's often said the crowd at places like Newcastle, Liverpool and Manchester United is worth a goal to their team, but that is only in the effect it has on the home players.
But your concentration on what you're doing is so total - or it should be - that you honestly don't hear the crowd. You know it's there but something you put out of your mind.
The time you notice it most is when the crowd is turning against the home team.
Having 50,000 people on your side can be a boost, but having 50,000 against you can be a real burden.
Things were getting a bit edgy at Newcastle because we got off to a flier thanks to yours truly, and for the first 20 minutes we bossed the game.
Had we taken our chances and gone two up things might have got a bit tasty, because Newcastle fans expect their team to roll over the opposition.
But the refusal of a penalty appeal gave them something to bite on, and suddenly they were behind their team again.
When you've got 30,000 or 50,000 roaring you on, it's a powerful force. It really does lift you and propel you along.
With that volume of noise coming from the stands, you might think it would drown out voices on the pitch.
But you actually hear quite clearly what's said out there, and referees certainly don't appear to have much trouble!
In Chris Marsden's case, you would hear him if you were playing on the earth and he was up on the moon.
A quick word about Alan Shearer - quality.
I was a young shaver at Blackburn when he was leading the team to the Premiership title and because of that, some people draw comparisons between us.
All I can say is that if I am still leading the line and playing as well as he is at the top level when I'm 33, I will be more than happy. Return to index
More than an occupational hazard
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
As a footballer, you never think that what you do for a living might kill you.Those thoughts would never have entered Jeff Astle's head when he started playing, and they certainly never entered mine.
I never saw Jeff play in the flesh, although I've seen the goals he scored for West Brom and England.
Heading a football is a centre-forward's stock-in-trade, it's how we score many of our goals.
The coroner's verdict that Jeff died as a result of heading a ball will be a nasty shock to many people.
It could have serious implications for football, although I'm sure technological advances mean we don't face the sort of problems that past players did.
When you look at the old grainy, black-and-white images you realise how tough those guys had it.
Pitches today are like carpets compared to the mud-heaps they played on, boots are lighter and modern fabrics mean our kit is light and doesn't soak up the rain.
It's not hard to see why the game is faster today! Most importantly, modern plastic-coated footballs don't soak up water and gain in weight like the old ones did.
I'm sure players brought up on modern footballs won't sustain the same sort of brain injuries that poor Jeff did.
Heading a ball is an intrinsic, exciting part of the game, and I for one certainly wouldn't want to see it banned.
My dad Mick is a good example of what you can do if you put your mind to it.
Unlike my brother Stuart and me, he never really had the chance to stay on at school and take exams, even though he is pretty clever and we get our brains from him.
Stuart is currently taking a course in psychology and counselling, and I had to choose between becoming a professional footballer or going to medical school.
After being forced to retire from his job as a lorry driver, he decided to do an accountancy course a couple of years ago.
He now does all my books for me.
Then just over a year ago, he decided to do a course in web-production.
For a bloke in his mid-50s, my dad is pretty forward-thinking and he's not afraid of computers as some people his age are.
He's done such a good job in building my website that he now gets approached to do sites for all sorts of people.
He was a trade union official when he was working as a lorry driver, which gave him a lot of experience of negotiating.
He was pretty useful in helping to negotiate some of the terms and conditions on my early contracts when I first came into the game. Return to index
Kings of consistency
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
In the Premiership, you come up against the best players week-in, week-out.Just what is it that separates, though, the cream from the rest? What makes an outstanding player, outstanding? I think the key word is: consistency.
It's the ability to perform at the top of your game just about every week that marks out the best.
You discover that when you play against somebody like Rio Ferdinand. Rio's qualities are his strength, his pace, his reading of the game and his ability on the ball.
They're qualities that just about every defender in the Premiership posseses, otherwise, they wouldn't be playing in the top flight.
But what marks Rio out is that he is able to put all his strengths together, and bring them to the table on a consistent, regular basis.
Managers are understandably frustrated by players who are stunning world beaters one game in every five or six.
It's the players like Rio, who can turn it on at a consistently high level that justify managers shelling out £30m on him.
Players like Rio have an aura about them, that comes from his ability and the confidence he has in it.
When you get that sort of performance regularly from your players, you invariably get a top team.
That's what Manchester United are, and I stick by my pre-season prediction that they will win the Premiership.
Liverpool have got off to a flying start, and Arsenal are obviously a threat.
But as United showed against us, they never stop. They keep coming at you and it's no coincidence that they regularly score winning goals late in games.
Everton's Wayne Rooney has all the makings of a great player.
Wayne's certainly got all the physical tools needed to be one of English football's top strikers
He played against us earlier in the season, although he wasn't on long to make an impact.I've seen his goals against Arsenal and Leeds and they obviously speak for themselves.
For a 17-year-old he's phenomenal and provided he continues on his current track, he will have a great future in the game.
I think Everton boss David Moyes is handling him just right at the moment. Wayne's world's at his feet, with David Moyes looking over his shoulder
He's trying to protect Wayne, while giving him a taste of Premiership football.
By introducing him late in the game as a sub, it means Wayne can come on and go eyeballs out for 20-25 minutes.
Wayne's certainly got all the physical tools needed to be one of English football's top strikers. To make him that, he will need to weld consistency on to those skills and talents he has. Return to index
Having a ball
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
I came away from the weekend with a nice souvenir - the match ball from my first Premiership hat-trick.It's particularly sweet not just because it is my first, but also because it will serve as a reminder of the rewards of hard work.
It's no secret I've had my troubles off the field this season. I thought I could just shrug them off but it did affect me.
I knew I had to buckle down and work twice as hard to get it out of my head and now I've come through it, it's made me a much stronger person mentally.
I'm aware exactly what football means to me, and it sharpened my focus that I have to concentrate on my football and let that do all the talking for me.
I've also had problems of a different sort on the pitch, and you have to work your way through them as well.
Before the Aston Villa game, nothing seemed to be going right for me at times in front of goal, although I wasn't playing badly.
I suppose the lowest point was against Manchester City when I couldn't make contact with a cross about three yards out, in front of goal.
Again, you have to shrug those off, believe in yourself and your ability and carry on doing exactly the same things in the knowledge that eventually it will come right.
I don't think I did anything vastly different on Sunday than I have been doing all season.
You still have to get yourself in the right positions and attack the ball, and I have been confident in doing that.
I suppose after Sunday, though, there'll be an extra little spring in my stride.
It wasn't just about my hat-trick, though. It was a fantastic team performance to come from two-nil down, and puts us in great shape to go to Old Trafford on Saturday.
Believe me, we're going there in a really confident frame of mind.
We're unbeaten in six matches, and including our Worthington Cup win over Tranmere, we've won four on the bounce.
You always look forward to playing at Old Trafford, even if sometimes it can be a bit intimidating.
If you're a professional footballer it's the sort of place you should be aspiring to play at.
Return to index
Three-minute hero
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
You can do a lot in three minutes.
You could hard-boil an egg in that time, but you wouldn't want to be hanging around waiting to take a penalty for that long.
Somebody put a clock on the time between referee Steve Bennett blowing his whistle to award our penalty at Aston Villa on Monday evening, and me taking it, and it was almost three minutes.
That's a long time - you try holding your breath for that long!
There was no question of any gamesmanship on Villa's part of the sort that Fabien Barthez indulged in.
But by the time Villa decided who was going to make way for their new goalkeeper and brought him on, I had been hanging about for some time.
In a situation like that, the worst thing you can do is to stand on the penalty spot, with your foot on the ball, waiting.
I just wandered off and cleared my head. You want the time between placing the ball on the spot and striking it to be as short as possible.
It didn't bother me that a new goalkeeper was coming out to face me.
I know that when Russell Hoult was sent off for West Brom a couple of weeks back his substitute Joe Murphy saved the resulting penalty with his first touch.
Goalkeepers are generally on a hiding to nothing in facing penalties, but it must be to the taker's advantage that he is facing somebody who is coming to the game stone cold.
I don't know too much about Stefan Postma, only that he is a big guy!
I put the penalty in the same place I would have put it had Peter Enckelman still been in between the posts.
It doesn't make a lot of difference who is in goal. Providing you strike the ball with enough pace and put it where you want it, the goalkeeper shouldn't save it anyway.
Believe me, given the chance to get off the mark for the season from the penalty spot, there was no way the keeper was going to save it!
One thing I'm often asked is whether players take extra care with their appearance if they know they're on live television.
There are one or two high-profile players - no names! - who put a bit of extra hair gel in, or get their hair cut knowing they are going to be on live TV.
But I don't think there are any in the Southampton dressing-room who spend time preening in front of the mirror before they go out.
We're not that bothered what we look like! Return to index
The one that got away
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
I was the hottest shot at the club this week.
All I hope is that it transfers itself to my boots.
We had a few days off this week, thanks to the international matches, and our chairman, Rupert Lowe, took us off clay pigeon shooting near Oxford.
It's something we have done before, and it's a good day out.
Rupert normally wins - probably because he gets the most practice.
But not this time. I proved to be the Richard Faulds of the day, with 23 out of 24.
The chairman's consolation was that he was on the winning team, along with Matthew "Annie" Oakley.
During the course of a season, we don't get too many days off, and when we do, we like to spend them in different ways.
Some players like Paul Telfer like to get out on the golf course.
He's a pretty good player, with a very low single-figure handicap and you wouldn't want to play bandits like him and Claus Lundekvam for money.
We all get our kicks in different ways, and when I've got some spare time, I like to go fishing.
It might not be rock and roll, but you would be surprised at the number of footballers who like to relax with a fishing rod in their hand.
Wayne Bridge is a keen angler as well, and Blackburn manager Graeme Souness has been known to sit on the river bank with Jimmy Case for company.
I've fished ever since I was a lad, I've got all my own gear.
Call me a big softie, but I can't kill the fish I catch. I put them back, and that cost me the biggest fish I ever hooked.
In fact I caught a five-foot shark big game fishing a couple of years back and I put that back too.
It's amazing what hobbies your team-mates have got.
Oakley also has a fishy hobby.
He keeps piranhas. He had a special tank built for them. They are evil-looking things, he feeds them on minced meat but they prefer live earthworms.
Lundekvam has a yacht, which he keeps in Norway.
He doesn't see it much during the winter, but he sails it all over the place in the summer, up and down the Norwegian coast, and he's even sailed it down to the Mediterranean.
Chris Marsden is a mad Elvis Presley fan.
He paid a homage trip to Elvis's home, Graceland and bought a souvenir replica driving licence, with Elvis's picture on it.
We went on an end-of-season trip to Las Vegas in May, and at every opportunity he pulled this driving licence out, whether anyone wanted to see his ID or not.
As if anyone would confuse his dome with Elvis's lush head of hair!
Wednesday is a big night for us all in Southampton as we stage the England international match at St Mary's.
We're not in action on Saturday as we play Aston Villa on Monday.
Hopefully, I'll still be firing on target. Return to index
Sack race starts
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
Peter Reid this week became the unfortunate winner - or should that be loser - of the Premiership sack race.Sunderland became the first Premiership team to give their manager the heave-ho on Monday, although the first sacking was a little later this season than in past years.
It was about this time last year that we went through a similar experience when Stuart Gray was sacked and Gordon Strachan was appointed.
It goes without saying that it's a traumatic experience for the manager himself when he is fired.
But the sacking of a manager affects players in different ways.
Those who were in the team and playing will be sorry to see him go, even though they may have been instrumental in getting him the sack.
It's normally poor results that get managers the sack, so perhaps those in the team regularly will feel a little guilty and bear some of the responsibility.
Those players who weren't in the team and were perhaps frozen out might well be glad to see the back of him!
I'm sure there are Sunderland players who are going through those exact emotions this week.
Some of them will be genuinely sorry at Peter Reid's dismissal. Others will be pleased and see it as their chance to get back in the team.
Because it's always the way that when a manager is sacked, another takes his place.
The transition can be a bit smoother if the new manager is an internal appointment.
When Stuart Gray took over following Glenn Hoddle's departure to Tottenham it wasn't too difficult for us players to adjust to.
Stuart had been first-team coach and we all knew him, the way he operated and what he wanted from us. But when Gordon replaced him, it was a different story.
When a new man comes in from outside it has an electrifying effect on players, who know that everyone starts with a clean slate.
Those players who weren't in the team under the old manager will take heart from the fact they have a chance to impress the new man.
There is a fear among the players in the team that the new man may not fancy them, so they also step things up, both in training and on the pitch.
The net result is that the new manager is a lucky man in having a bunch of players who are fired up and keen to impress him. The same group of players whose performances produced the results that got the last man fired!
It's no small surprise that results show a dramatic improvement on the appointment of a new manager. Return to index
Build-up to the big one
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
Every team and player has their own way of preparing for a match.
Preparation for the next game begins on the first day of training after a match, normally a Monday.
During the course of the week the boss and the coaching staff will have had their reports and watched videos and have us working on certain things.
By Thursday, we work on specific things, and in our last training session on Friday we will work on set pieces.
If we are travelling to a Saturday away game, we leave after training and lunch on Friday.
These days, for any game north of Birmingham we tend to fly up. The idea is that we don't spend several hours on a coach and risk our muscles cramping up.
Having said that, for the past three trips we have been delayed at the airport and spent three hours in the departure lounge, which defeated the object a bit!
Once we've checked in to our hotel, there's a chance to relax and chill.
The physiotherapists are always on hand to give us a massage if we want one, other than that, we spend the evening watching films, playing on the Playstation or listening to music.
Dinner-wise, we're left to our own devices. Most players are pretty clued up these days on dietary matters.
In the past, the traditional footballer's pre-match meal was steak, cooked so rare it was almost still mooing.
But we tend to eat foods that are high in carbohydrates and easier to digest than a steak, stuff like pasta, chicken and fish.
After dinner, we go back to our rooms and wind down, ready to go to sleep.
I tend to room with Wayne Bridge. He's got a similar sense of humour to me, and we know each other's habits well enough to know not to get on each other's nerves.
I normally wake up about nine. Some players are up before that, others lie-in until midday.
I'm a firm believer that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I tend not to have a full English breakfast, but sometimes I'll have scrambled or poached eggs, toast and perhaps a yoghurt.
I might have another massage to loosen me up, but we meet up about midday for lunch.
It's important to put the right fuel in, but it has to be something light.
So again, it's pasta, chicken, baked potatoes, high-fuel, carbohydrate foods for lunch, along with plenty of water.
After lunch we have our team meeting.
It's normally held in a conference room at the hotel. We normally know by this stage what the starting line-up will be, although the boss will vary it.
At the meeting, he will run through tactical things, and tell us what he requires from each of us individually, and collectively as a team.
When we arrive at the ground I tend to take a seat and spend a few minutes reading the programme.
We then go out and have a look at the pitch, and decide what footwear we need, although that's not as hard a decision as it used to be as most Premiership pitches these days are well-grassed, well-watered and take a full stud.
A dressing-room before a match is a fascinating place. Everyone has his own way of preparing for a match. Some players are very quiet and reflective, others are bullish, upbeat and chirpy.
We will go out and have a thorough warm-up, and come back in around 15 minutes before kick-off, to put our match-kit on.
There is one last part of the build-up.
Just before kick-off we go into a group huddle. Some people look on it as an American thing, but we adopted it as a last bit of team-building to pull us together.
We break, drop into our positions and wait for the referee's whistle which is the signal to start the 90 minutes our whole week has been geared around. Return to index
In the public eye
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
It's part of the territory as a Premiership player that you are constantly in the public eye.You have to be big enough to accept that not all the publicity you get is going to be positive, all the time.
But some of the attention that has attached itself to my recent drink-driving court case has been a bit out of order.
I made a mistake which I accept I'm paying the price for I don't have a drink problem, and my manager Gordon Strachan was quick to leap to my defence and confirm that.
Some people would have you believe that footballers go out drinking every night.
I never lose sight of how lucky I am to be playing in the Premiership, and I'm fully aware of my responsibilities.
Those responsibilities are not just to those who watch us and perhaps look to us as role models, but I also have responsibilities to myself.
As the gaffer said, the rewards are so big in the Premiership that we owe it to ourselves as athletes to be responsible.
As far as I'm concerned, I'm putting the episode behind me to concentrate on what I'm paid to do - score goals for Southampton.
I must admit, we've struggled to do that this season, and it's not easy to pin-point the reason why. We're not doing much different from last year when the goals were going in.
It was interesting to see what the gaffer said in the wake of the goalless draw with Charlton about players needing to stay calm in the opposition penalty box.
When the goals aren't going in, there's a danger of any striker being caught in a vicious circle.
In your haste and eagerness to score, there's the danger that you start to snatch at things
All you can do is work in training and hope that you get the break you need in a match.
It's often the way that a striker's lean spell will end in the strangest circumstances; a ball will cannon in off his shins, or hit him on the backside and fly in.
When it happen it lifts a weight off your shoulders, and even a freak goal will give you confidence.
Not that I or my team-mates are alone in this.
Michael Owen can't buy a goal at the moment, but nobody would suggest for one moment that he's not a class player.
It's also interesting to see that in the current round of matches, including Monday night's goalless draw between Fulham and Chelsea, 11 Premiership teams failed to score at the weekend.
The list of those firing blanks included teams who are thought to have potent attacks, the likes of Manchester City, Leeds and West Ham.
Defences are getting tighter and I think that's down to the amount of homework every Premiership team does.
Every team these days sends out scouts to look at the opposition, to assess their strengths and weaknesses.
When the reports are in, they're digested by the manager and coaching staff, and you spend the week working in training to combat them.
It means teams are so much more organised defensively, and more capable of nullifying the opposition.
Defences know where certain players are likely to make their runs, how the ball is going to be delivered to them, things like that.
None of which makes our job as strikers any easier.
It's probably no coincidence that the biggest transfer deal done in the summer involved a defender, Rio Ferdinand.
Talking of transfers brings me on to the subject of the closing of the transfer window.
I said at the start of the season in one of my first columns that I didn't think it was a good idea.
Teams like ourselves are not able to strengthen until January, which means the manager has to use the players he has, unless he can find somebody out of contract.
It's another reason why we need Agustin Delgado fit. When he is, it will be like a new player for us and hopefully give us a boost.
Even though he's a striker and could potentially be after my place, I welcome the competition. Return to index
No pain, no gain
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
I was desperately sorry to hear that Gordon Watson has suffered another broken leg.He must be one of the unluckiest players in football.
Gordon battled back from a horrific broken leg which might have finished many players' careers, but he showed a lot of bottle and desire in getting himself back.
Although he now plays for Hartlepool he still lives down on the South Coast and he trains with us at Southampton during the week, travelling up to the north-east for games.
He trained with us last week, and was only saying before he went how much he was looking forward to the derby match against Darlington.
The fact that he flies up to the north-east for every home game shows how much he loves playing the game.
And it's that as much as anything, which drives you on to recover and get back to playing.
I know from experience that there's nothing worse than being injured.
Last season I dislocated my ankle and I don't think I have ever been so frustrated in my life.
I did it against Manchester United in February, and I was out for six weeks.
There's never a good time to have an injury, and mine came when I was in the middle of a good goalscoring trot.
Of course, you feel duty bound to go along and support your team-mates, but I hated sitting in the stands, watching, knowing there was nothing I could do to affect what was happening out on the pitch.
As professional footballers, we're lucky that we have the very best treatment, the sort that isn't always available to guys that play in local football up and down the country.
Players are part of a football club's assets, and as such we're covered by insurance.
A player is no use to a club stuck in the stands so it's obviously in their interest to make sure we return to action as quickly as possible.
But every injury has a legacy. Although I returned after six weeks last season I was never really 100% fit.
One of the problems was that I kept getting calf strains because I was over-compensating
I still have problems with the ankle now, and have to have regular manipulation on it.
We've been in for double training sessions this week, but it's not to punish us.
Our last two games only show what a daft game football is sometimes.
Against Everton we didn't play well, and probably didn't deserve to win. But you have to take wins like that when they're on offer because along comes a game like the one at West Brom.
We did more than enough to win but failed to come away with even one point.
The old saying is that you have to mad to be a goalkeeper, but another requirement is skin thicker than a rhinoceros hide.
When goalkeepers make an error it's inevitably a costly one, resulting in a goal, as Paul Jones discovered.
His error should have been academic. We had enough chances to have won the game and been home and hosed.
Outfield players have the luxury of being able to make errors which aren't so starkly exposed as goalkeepers.
It hasn't been a good week for goalkeepers, what with Peter Enckelman's ricket for Villa, and Kelvin Davis making a similar one for Wimbledon.
Supporters and media are quick to highlight errors and point the fingers at individuals, but this doesn't tend to happen within the confines of a dressing room.
The team has a collective responsibility. We're happy enough to take the credit when things are going well, so it's only right that we all take collective blame when they don't, and there was no finger-pointing in Jonah's directon.
The collective thing is part of the reason we've had extra training this week.
Anybody who saw Arsenal's first goal against Charlton couldn't fail to be impressed by the way that Thierry Henry swept on to Dennis Bergkamp's pass.
It was all so smooth, especially the way Dennis just seemed to play the ball blindly. But these things don't happen by accident.
A goal like that is the result of long hours on the training ground. Dennis would have pulled that ball back into space, confident in the knowledge that there would be an Arsenal shirt running into it.
You work on situations like that in training, the strikers creating space with runs that others will fill behind them.
At the same time, defenders work on how to stop that sort of thing.
It takes lots of practice to the point where it's almost instinctive.
Let's hope it pays off for us. Return to index
More questions than answers
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
Why is it that an England international match always seems to pose more questions than it answers?Alan Smith certainly did his cause no harm, but one of the questions that constantly pops up is who is the better out of Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge?
I'm biased, but I think Bridgey is the better player, but then I'd expect Ashley Cole's Arsenal team-mates to say the same thing.
My solution to the problem would be to try and find room for both. Neither of them would be out of place in midfield.
They both know how to defend, they're both good going forward and they are both naturally left-footed players.
After Stuart Pearce's retirement there was a lot of concern about the lack of good left-backs. Now, England have two excellent ones to pick from.
The other question surrounds the relevance of friendly international matches.
Mr Eriksson's tendency to make wholesale changes in friendlies lays him open to criticism of treating them like training matches.
I think friendly internationals are vital. They are often the only chance the England squad have of getting together before qualifying games for major tournaments.
Mr Erikssson is in a bit of a no-win situation. If he didn't have friendly internationals he would be accused of going into major tournaments under-prepared.
A twist of the international fixture list saw some of my Southampton team-mates up against each other.
My little striking partner Marian Pahars and Imants Bleidelis came through their confrontation with our summer signing Michael 'Killer' Svensson in Latvia's creditable 0-0 draw with Sweden.
In Helsinki our two goalkeepers were at opposite ends of the pitch.
Paul Jones was between the sticks for Wales and the man trying to win his first-team place, new signing Antti Niemi was at the other end.
Wales did really well and under Mark Hughes they could well start to make a long overude impression on the international stage.
I discovered from his time at Southampton that Sparky was a winner and you can bet he's got the respect of all the Welsh players.
Wales have got some hugely talented players in Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy and Simon Davies. Now they have a manager who has lit a bit of Welsh fire in their bellies and they want to play for their country.
With a surname like Beattie, I've obviously got some Scottish blood in me somewhere.
I've never really looked too closely at my family tree, but there is a Scottish connection on my dad's side.
As an Englishman it doesn't give me any great pleasure to see Scotland struggling - honestly!
When I was a kid following football, it seemed that every top English club had a Scotsman at the heart of their team.
Liverpool had Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish and Alan Hansen, and back through the years Manchester United had the likes of Denis Law, Lou Macari, Joe Jordan and Gordon McQueen.
The Nottingham Forest side that won the European Cup twice was built around players like Archie Gemmill, John Robertson and Kenny Burns.
If you go back further, you have to consider the likes of Billy Bremner at Leeds and Dave McKay at Spurs back in the 1960s and 70s.
I'm told there was even a little ginger Scottish player by the name of Strachan who wasn't a bad player when he was at Leeds and Manchester United.
At the moment, though, Scotland just aren't producing top players. You could probably count the Scottish players with top Premiership clubs on the fingers of one hand.
You have to feel a little sorry for Bertie Vogts. He's coming under a lot of pressure, but he can only work with the material he's got.
These things go in cycles, and I'm sure if they can get their youth production system going Scotland will rise again.
In the meantime, it's back to domestic action for me. Everton come to St Mary's on Wednesday evening for a game which we need to win.
The season is still young and it hasn't got to the stage where we are pressing any panic buttons, but it's always nice to get that first win under your belt.
We've played well in our last two games against Spurs and Chelsea without getting the breaks we perhaps deserved.
A little change of luck against the Toffees wouldn't go amiss. Return to index
Football's Three Rs
Southampton striker
and BBC Sport Online columnist
Last weekend was one dominated by referees' decisions, and rules and regulations.We were on the wrong end of a sticky decision at Tottenham.
I thought we had played well enough to deserve a point and looked like getting it until the controversial last-minute penalty.
I'm not entirely sure it was a penalty. Steffen Iversen's shot was from point-blank range, and in attempting to block it, I don't think Michael Svensson could get out of the way.
Handball has to be deliberate, and from that distance, Michael's reflexes couldn't have been that sharp to move his hands towards the ball.
But you have to accept that those decisions will sometimes go for you as well as against you, even though it's tough to take.
What is tougher to take is the legacy of that decision.
Unless Michael Svensson's appeal is successful, he will be suspended.
So in one fell swoop, not only did the referee cost us a point with his decision, but could cost us more as we will be without an influential defender for a game.
I think as players, we accept that a deliberate attempt to prevent a goal should be punished by a sending-off. But under certain circumstances the award of a penalty and the dismissal of a player should be sufficient punishment.
By suspending the player as well, the team is being punished twice.
Obviously, the big talking-points were the dismissals of Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira.
Both are fantastic players, and terrific competitors. In fact, it's their competitive edge which makes them the great players they are.
The way they play, fiercely competing for every ball, inevitably brings them to the attention of the referee, and you sometimes wonder whether their reputation preceeds them and they are looked at closer than others.
Having said that, it didn't look as though Roy had too much to complain about against Sunderland.
There may have been no deliberate attempt to elbow Jason McAteer, but somebody like Roy has to be extra careful in situations like that.
I haven't seen the incident which earned Patrick Vieira his sending off, but that raises another issue.
He was sent off for a second yellow card, and under the rules, he is unable to appeal against it, even though it prompted a sending-off.
Ironically, if Vieira had committed a worse foul than he supposedly did and was shown an instant red card, he would have been able to appeal against that!
The rule allowing players to recieve five yellow cards before they are suspended was increased from three. The exchange was the ending of appeals against yellow cards.
But there has to be some discretion and common sense if a dodgy yellow card leads to a player being sent off.
Rather than a second yellow card in a match that would trigger a suspension, perhaps there is a case for sin-bins, as in rugby and ice hockey.
I know it's something that has been talked about before, and maybe there is a case for introducing it to football.
It would make more sense to punish a team for 10 or 20 minutes in the match by reducing their numbers, rather than punish them three games down the line against different opposition.
It's a Saturday off for most Premiership players this weekend, and I'll be spending it by hopefully watching my team-mate Wayne Bridge play for England against Portugal.
He's become a fixture in the squad, but I would like to see him play in the team more regularly.
International fixtures mean a strange, artificial sort of week for us players.
You obviously have to work just as hard on the training ground, but there is no end product at the end of the week to work to.
It's also strange having a break this early in the season.
Like all Premiership players, we've gone through a really tough pre-season training regime to get ourselves fit enough for the big start, and then just a couple of weeks in, we're taking our foot off the pedal.
I think breaks for international matches later in the season are very welcome, and while the prime reason is to help the England team (and I'm all in favour of that) I think it also helps us as well.
But I think your perception of whether a break is welcome or not depends on how the team is doing.
If you're flying along, you obviously don't want anything to interrupt your momentum.
But if you're having a bad trot, you might welcome a bit of breathing space to take stock.
Return to index
By John May at the Millennium StadiumThe bitter taste of FA Cup final defeat has increased James Beattie's appetite for England action this summer.
At a time when most players are winding down their season, Beattie is gearing up after the disappointment of Saturday's FA Cup final defeat.
Although he, along with Wayne Bridge and Arsenal's Ashley Cole, will not be jetting out to South Africa with England, Beattie is in the England squad for the friendly with Serbia & Montenegro and the Euro 2004 qualifier against Slovakia.
"I'm really looking forward to joining up with England," he told this website.
"It might cut into my summer break, but I think I'm willing to give up a bit of that.
"By the time I've finished with England, it will leave me a bit of time to disappear in June, before coming back in July for pre-season.
"But if you want to compete at the top, you have to be prepared to make sacrifices," added Beattie, who promised he and Southampton would be back.
"We came off as losers but I want to take the experience from being here in the game itself.
Post match interviews [Modem] Post match interviews [Broadband]
"Some people will look at the final and say I came off second best against Martin Keown."But it was always going to be a tough game, Martin is a top central defender.
"We've had a good season as a team, and I've been lucky enough to have a good season personally.
"I have always said that if I could stay injury-free, I would score goals.
"I've been lucky enough not to have had any injuries this season, and I think my goal tally of 23 Premiership goals proves my point.
We're a young squad and we've made genuine strides as a club
James Beattie
"We're a young squad and we've made genuine strides as a club."When you play in a final, you realise you want to play in a game like this every week," said Beattie who again expressed his admiration for Henry.
Henry finished just ahead of Beattie in the Golden Boot race, pushing the Saints striker down to third place behind Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Beattie has no grudges against the Frenchman, though.
"He is a unique player, he really is fantastic to watch, and when I look backward, I sometimes feel really sorry for the guys who play at the back.
"If I wasn't doing anything on a Saturday afternoon I would go and watch Arsenal play."