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By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London

As I turned up on a dreary night to a dreary pub and sat down in front of the TV with my flat, dreary pint of lager, I was fully expecting to be slowly numbed into a subdued state of lethargy by a dreary stalemate played out in the pouring rain of Basle. Having followed Switzerland as my second team over a number of years, I fully knew what to expect. Those who cared to watch their games in South Africa will have got a pretty good snapshot of their style of play. They are a team amply sprinkled with attacking talent (Inler, Behrami, Frei) but against the ‘bigger’ teams they are experts at shutting the door at the back and playing for a draw or a cheeky one-nil. I’m not one for criticising this tactic, but it doesn’t usually make for a compelling game of football. However, I was in for a pleasant surprise.

The first half largely belonged to a slick England side who played in a way not seen at all in South Africa. They were moving the ball at speed, running into space, skinning defenders and terrorising the Swiss back-line. There was a distinct sense of confidence returning to the much-maligned England team, and barely any sign of the nervousness and stunted tactics seemingly ever-present at the World Cup.

England simply overran the Swiss midfield in the early stages. They were managing to maintain possession for long periods, patiently waiting for their moment to play an incisive pass. Steven Gerrard really looks to be in his element in the centre of the field. He has been the main man leading the England resurgence in the last couple of games, and it will be hard for Capello to give the captaincy back to Ferdinand when he returns to the England fold from injury. He looks relaxed on the ball and has vision and passing ability that is truly World-class. If he gets pushed back out to the left of midfield when Lampard is back in contention, Capello would be making a huge mistake. Gerrard commands the midfield in that position, and he is finally showing some of the brilliance that he produces so often for Liverpool. He was spraying around fantastic passes all evening. He almost put in Defoe in the first half with a wonderful first-touch angled ball, and quickly and intelligently put Adam Johnson in for his goal in the second half. He probably wouldn’t have been in position to play either of those passes had he been consigned to the left-hand side of midfield, as he has been so many times before.

Rooney is another who has been instrumental in England’s opening victories in qualification. He put his recent personal misdemeanours to the back of his mind to turn in another cracking performance. He finally seems to be back on form for the first time since injuring his ankle in Manchester United’s Champions League exit at the hands of Bayern Munich last season. I don’t think it was ever in doubt that he would be playing in this game, not matter what the majority of the media would have us believe. He started the game brightly and opened the scoring for England on ten minutes with a simple finish from a Glen Johnson cross, after the right-back had made a strong bustling run to the bye-line. He again showed some lovely touches throughout, and is probably the only other player in England’s squad that England fans can truly claim as World-class.

The other stand-out player for England last night was Adam Johnson, who looks like a real live wire every time he comes off the bench. He came on for an injured Theo Walcott early in the first half and again made a compelling argument for a starting berth in England’s next line-up. I thought that Capello might have been tempted to switch Johnson to the left and bring Milner to the right on his introduction to the field, but this was not to be. It turned out to be a good decision as he looks almost as good at crossing from the right flank and also has the opportunity to cut inside and unleash a few shots – which he did on numerous occasions. His fine performance was capped off with a good goal when he rounded Benaglio to slot in after being put through by Gerrard.

Whilst Johnson was good on the right, I’m still not a fan of having Milner on the left. Milner is predominantly a central midfielder who can also fill in on the right. He actually put in a pretty decent performance last night, but he looks out of position on the left. It is not his natural game to surge past people on the left wing. He can occasionally bustle his way through due to his strength on the ball, but it all looks a bit lopsided. He also cuts back onto his right foot too often when it would perhaps be a better option to cross with his left. I can understand Capello’s thinking in putting a more defensively-minded player on the left to cover for an advanced Ashley Cole, but it still seems like negative football to me. I would much rather see a left-footed Adam Johnson or Ashley Young on the left – it just seems a waste otherwise. In any case, what position Milner plays in for England next time round is something Capello won’t have to worry about as he picked up a booking and is ineligible to play against Montenegro at Wembley next month.

The defensive pairing of Lescott and Jagielka didn’t have an awful lot to do to be honest. I’m not a fan of Lescott. I didn’t think he was brilliant at Everton, and he certainly hasn’t distinguished himself at Man City. Mark Hughes’ claim at the time of his move to the blue side of Manchester of him being ‘Arguably the best defender in the world’ seems even more ridiculous now than it did at the time. I also thought it was harsh on Gary Cahill who did well when he came on against Bulgaria a few days ago and also reportedly played alongside Jagielka in training for the Switzerland match. His time will surely come. Switzerland did press the England defence for a period of about ten minutes in the second half, and the two centre backs looked a little tetchy, but they put in a perfectly adequate performance over the course of ninety minutes. Joe Hart had a couple of dodgy moments, spilling the ball on a couple of occasions, but that can probably be explained away with the atrocious conditions. He had absolutely no chance with Shaqiri’s barnstorming second-half shot, but will be looking to cut out the little errors which were starting to creep into his game at times against the Swiss. He still looks commanding from crosses, and the England defence will certainly benefit in the future from having his positive presence at the back.

The only negative in the game was a period in the second half when England couldn’t seem to keep the ball despite being a man up. The Swiss were fired up after Shaqiri’s goal, and the crowd were egging them on, but England need to learn to quell those sorts of situations by maintaining possession and extinguishing their enthusiasm. There were signs of nerves in that period, but they eventually managed to gather themselves and get their noses back in front in terms of possession. England should have scored from a breakaway attack, but Wright-Phillips’ attempted pass to an unmarked Darren Bent was absolutely abysmal and easily cut out by the defender. The diminutive winger is surely hanging onto his England place by the skin of his teeth and his recent performances have done little to suggest that he will still be there come the time Montenegro visit Wembley.

England finally managed to kill the game off when Ashley Cole played in Darren Bent, and the Sunderland man took one touch before blasting the ball into the near corner with his laces. It was a great finish, and a pleasing moment for a player who has played brilliantly at club level in recent times but has been unable to replicate his form for England when given the chance. Capello seemed to be sharing a joke with Ray Clemence after the goal went in. Perhaps Ray was joshing Fabio about taking the frankly useless Emile Heskey to South Africa instead of Bent.

What do you think they were saying? You can watch the video below.