Internationals breaks rarely make for interesting viewing. Even this one, which concludes the group stages in Europe, only has a few games that actually mean anything, and won’t be half as exciting as the playoffs that follow. Those, of course, are being seeded at the last minute because FIFA panicked at the possibility of two of the big guns facing each other and causing one to miss the showpiece.

It has been good news on the Arsenal front though – Gibbs scored for the Under 21s, Vela scored a beautifully taken goal for Mexico, Cesc got one for Spain, Gallas one for France, and even Senderos managed a brace – the Swiss was actually on a hattrick as early as the eighth minute against Luxembourg.

Elsewhere, Vermaelen was named Belgium’s captain, adding to the fantastic few months he is having, and while Belgium may no longer be among Europe’s elite, they did manage a decent win over Turkey in his first game with the armband, and it is a continuation of the high regard he is held in – he was Ajax skipper last season and at international level has got the nod ahead of more experienced campaigners such as Van Buyten.

Gunnerblog has a good piece here on how Vermaelen is a promising candidate for Arsenal captain as and when Cesc leaves. It is early days, but I’d tend to agree that the signs are good.

Of course, being a slow news week, the media have been in hyperdrive about a transfer window that is still three months away – Cesc, Merida and Clichy all rumoured to be leaving. Columns have to be filled somehow, I suppose, although I’d be amazed if there was anyone left buying a newspaper to read the ‘latest developments’ on a Cesc-Barcelona story.

One final thing to say today, and that is to ask you to go and download the latest Arsenal FC Weekly podcast on Arsenal FC Blog, which you can get here. It’s an ever-excellent listen, and last week Andy, blogger and host, invited me on to talk about the Blackburn victory, Cesc, Van Persie and also look back briefly over Wenger’s time in charge. Check it out if you can.

And that’s it for today. Less than a week until the real football returns. I can’t wait – can you?

Given that we are in the midst of an international break, there is a surprising amount to get through.

First, we have yesterday’s comments from John Terry that English players don’t dive:

“That’s something the England lads don’t do. Sometimes we’re too honest. Even in the Premier League, we see the English lads get a bit of contact and try to stay on their feet and score the chance. The foreign mentality coming in is that any little clip you can go tumbling over, because of the speed of the game nowadays.”

Say what? Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, Joe Cole and Ashley Cole. Is he seriously suggesting that none of these players ever dive?

I’m taking a random stab in the dark here, but I’m guessing Terry’s a Daily Mail reader. If he can even read. Quite frankly, what he says isn’t borderline politically incorrect, it is flat out xenophobic. And also a barefaced lie.

English players dive. I don’t care if it is a problem that seems to have been imported, English players still dive. Trying to claim that they’re all innocent, and that it is only Johnny Foreigner that tumbles theatrically to the turf isn’t fooling anyone.

Quite frankly, as the captain of the England team, a prominent and responsible role, he should be brought to task. If an office worker suggested that his foreign colleagues shared a negative trait not seen in the English, he’d be facing a pretty stiff lawsuit. Followed swiftly by his P45.

I’m sure there will be plenty of reports linking this to the Rooney incident in tonight’s England friendly, probably even on some Arsenal blogs (as we are feeling a bit defensive on this topic at the moment). But we should try to retain some perspective – Rooney and his marker were tugging at each other, tangled, when down, and Rooney lashed out. Bizarrely enough a penalty was given, but it wasn’t a dive. If it had been an Arsenal player we would be defending him, saying the referee just screwed up. Just because it is Rooney doesn’t mean we should have double standards.

It wasn’t a dive, so don’t use this as an example to counter Terry’s comments. There are already stacks of ready made incidents for that purpose.

Elsewhere, it is looking increasingly like Portugal will have next summer off, although they could have been dead and buried were it not for a late equaliser against Denmark, Bendtner having put the Danes ahead in the first half. As it is, Portugal are still only fourth in a tough group, and anything less than a win away to an impressive Hungarian side and it’s curtains.

Which would leave the World Player of the Year at home, for the first time since the days when George Weah used to win it but have no decent Liberian teammates. Of course, it isn’t an identical situation – Weah was popular, whereas Portugal failing to make it to the World Cup would just result in a lot of pointing and laughing.

Another country almost certain to miss out are the Czech Rep, a woeful fifth in their group. Sadly, that probably means Rosicky has played on the biggest stage for the last time, and will not get a chance to captain his country in South Africa.

Another Gooner, Vermaelen, is also set to stay at home – Belgium are six points from a play off spot with three games left. It looks bleak for them too.

In other news, there are reports that Djourou has had a knee op which will keep him out for six months. Suddenly Senderos is our first reserve centre back, and since Djourou was my my preferred option to replace Song in defensive midfield when the Cameroonian goes to the African Nations Cup, we look light there. It’s a shame – Djourou’s Arsenal career promises so much, but still hasn’t got going. Hopefully this will cure his continual injury problems.

And that’s it for today. We’re only halfway through the international break, folks. Roll on next weekend.

Following England’s routine win over Kazakhstan on Saturday, I was listening to Five Live’s 606 programme, which has the unfortunate habit of being gripping despite being mostly filled with ranting, rambling nonsense.

Irritating as Alan Green, the usual presenter, can sometimes be, he does bring a certain level of wit that adds entertainment to his acerbic comments, whether or not his points have actual merit when fully considered. At the other end of the scale, there is Tim Lovejoy, the worst of the worst ‘local down the pub’ sort of football fan, the sort that feels compelled to shout his baseless opinion above those he is debating with, as if drowning out reason makes him more credible. It makes him more painful to listen to.

But as depressing an experience listening to Lovejoy can be, he is not the worst. That dubious honour goes to Steve Claridge, a man so out of touch with the game he comments on, one who has never held an opinion that stands up to any sort of analysis, and whose mannerisms often leave me wishing for David Pleat’s voice. Yes, he really is that bad.

With a fairly average performance nevertheless resulting in a 4-0 victory, and a trivial match against Andorra to come on Wednesday night, the subject for the full hour was the uncompetitive nature of international football. Nothing wrong with that – a pundit claiming that qualifying matches are, for the most part, dull and predictable affairs will get no argument out of me. What will provoke a reaction is suggesting idiotic solutions.

With the breakdown of Yugoslavia and certain Russian states, plus the invitation to some of the tiniest nations in Europe, such as Andorra, there are now around twice as many UEFA members as there were only a couple of decades ago. Naturally, with the talent pool no bigger than before, the quality among some of the smaller nations is no better than lower league domestic football, and certainly not a spectacle for the neutral, less so when a giant of the game hands out a routine hammering whether or not they actually play well enough to deserve it.

The trouble is that there are so many poor nations out there that more than half of our qualifying games are meaningless one-sided affairs. Croatia and Ukraine provide the challenge in England’s group, and those games at least raise an eyebrow, but elsewhere we have to put up with six matches against Belarus, Kazakhstan and Andorra. Does anyone care about these games?

Claridge is adamant that the bulk of these nations should be placed in pre-qualifying, with only the cream of the crop allowed to face the elite of European football in the full qualifying stage, thus reducing the matches and the boredom. Reading this, you might think I’m in agreement, but I couldn’t be more against the idea.

There are so many reasons why such an idea is unworkable. Firstly, to have it make any difference, you effectively have to split the continent in half – the automatic ’round 2′ nations, and the pre-qualifiers, otherwise it’ll make little difference. But with so many nations, this means a massive tournament has to take place before the big nations even begin their qualifying campaigns. When can this happen? Some have suggested during the summer tournaments, but the FAs of these nations rely on gate and TV revenue – how much money do you think will be made in a Luxembourg v San Marino match during a major tournament?

And what next for the losing countries? Two years of friendlies? Oh, that’ll help them.

Leaving practicality aside for a moment, let’s look at the morals. The whole point of putting all countries together is that they all start from a level playing field. A few shock wins, and you might get in. Conversely, a few bad results from a major nation puts them in jeopardy. But the minnows would have to perform well in two campaigns, which seems highly unfair.

Perhaps more importantly, it stifles their opportunity for progression. Turkey used to be absolutely hopeless on the international stage, but after years of hammerings their game improved to the point where they are no longer a pushover. Latvia, a country who would be in the bottom half and therefore the pre-qualifiers, made it to Euro 2004 on the back of a few surprising results. Northern Ireland nearly qualified for Euro 2008 and beat England in the previous campaign, but may never get the chance to compete in the finals under these circumstances. With the cyclical nature of national strength, each pre-qualifying country may get through to play ‘top half’ nations every 12-16 years. How does this help them improve, or promote their game?

The real problem is not that we play the minnows, it is not that they have an equal chance of progression as we do, it is not that there are so many of them, and it even isn’t that Kazakhstan, along with Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the more dangerous Turkey, Israel and Cyprus are geographically more in Asia than Europe and should therefore be elsewhere. The real issue is the mechanism of qualification chosen by UEFA are designed to suit the powerhouses of European football.

Years ago, qualification groups were much smaller – four teams in a group was commonplace. As we know from tournament finals, groups of that size massively increase the magnitude of individual games – one poor result and you could be in real trouble. In qualifiers, it is slightly expanded because each team plays each other twice, but even in six games one or two results can have an enormous impact.

Compare that to the current model – say the unthinkable happens and England draw with, or even lose to Andorra on Wednesday night. Would it matter? To the gleeful press, yes, but to the bigger picture of qualification, not one jot. There are so many other games in the group that we would not be punished for our slip, and nor would the result give Andorra a prayer of qualification.

Now imagine the groups were smaller. We have 53 nations in Europe and 13 places up for grabs in the World Cup. Why not have 13 groups, nine of four teams, and five of five. The winners qualify. Simple? Thought so.

Picture England in a group of four teams, knowing second place was nothing. While seeding would still mean a minnow would be in their group, would a poor result against them be so meaningless? Of course not – one slip and you put yourself in massive danger.

Moreover, it promotes the idea of football as a worldwide sport, where every country really does have a chance of getting through. Take Northern Ireland or Bosnia, two countries never in major finals, both of which are having terrific campaigns. Over the course of 10-12 qualifiers and a playoff, they will surely be found out and will, once again, fail to qualify. But under a shorter system, those few excellent results they have achieved would take them to the finals. Seeing Latvia dominate Germany in a Euro 2004 group stage match was memorable for me, and certainly for them – why not increase the chances of this happening again? It doesn’t devalue the main competition as that is also set up to be open – look at how Greece eventually won the same tournament.

The positives are numerous – there would be fewer internationals exhausting the players during the season, each match would actually have significance, the chances of producing a more diverse competition are greater, and the stature of the international game as a whole would improve, which is surely good for UEFA and FIFA.

So why aren’t they considering it?

Simply put, it would annoy the bigger nations by making their qualification trickier. But surely that is what it is all about – one of the stories of this campaign is how Portugal may not make it, with Denmark and Hungary currently comfortably ahead of them. Neither would be embarrassed at the finals, so neither would detract from the competition. But you get the feeling, with the length of the qualifying process, that Portugal will probably come back. But with only two wins from six games, they should be gone.

It seems such a simple plan. But it will never happen, not while the big countries hold all the power. So don’t listen to the likes of Steve Claridge bleating about the lack of strength of international competition, but only suggesting changes that marginalise the smaller nations, instead of giving them a fair crack. It is not our place to dismiss them into their own competition. We should instead not design a system that suits us, only to complain about it later.

This is not the Champions League, where forcing automatic entry to weak sides who will inevitably get hammered devalues the competition. This is the World Cup, where performing well in 4-5 qualifiers should give you a chance to perform on the biggest stage.

After the media have stopped delighting in England scoring a late goal to scrape a home victory over a side ranked next to Paraguay in the world rankings, we might finally get some sense of normality back, and look forward to what promises to be a fascinating end to the season.

These past two weeks have been agonising – England’s friendly victory over Slovakia was uninspiring, with the 4-0 scoreline enormously flattering, while last night taught us much of what we already know – Gerrard and Lampard don’t play for England like they do for their clubs, James is a dodgy keeper at the top level, Rooney is never going to curb his temper, and Crouch was right to put the robot away a few years ago. But Capello is a good coach, and at least seems to be making them play as a team, even if the press are getting a little ahead of themselves on our World Cup chances. But then what’s new?

Now that the games are finally over, we get our players back, and as ever, there are walking wounded. Bendtner didn’t play for Denmark last night [edit - he didn't start, but came on after half an hour and played the rest of the game. Great. Play our half-injured strikers, you gits.], Nasri pulled out with a virus, joining Diaby on the sidelines, and Van Persie from the weekend fixtures. Thankfully, Eduardo and Arshavin seem to have got through their games unscathed, great news given the fitness concerns around both.

There are eight weeks to go in the season, with anywhere from eleven to fifteen games to play in that time, and keeping the squad fit is imperative. Most importantly, players are returning – Cesc and Adebayor are raring to go again, with even Rosicky on the brink of fitness. Yes, really.

And we’re in a great position – the break may suit Villa as they get a chance to recharge and really go for their final eight games having been on such an awful run, but we’re starting this stretch with a very winnable game at home to a Man City side who are drifting towards their inevitable summer spending spree, and not playing with the kind of fluency we saw when they trounced us earlier in the campaign.

But by the end of the month, we’ll have played Villareal twice, plus Liverpool in the league and Chelsea in the cup, and for that, we need as many players as possible to remain fit. This time last year, our squad was seriously tiring, but this time we actually have fresher legs to call on.

It should be fascinating. I’m just glad the real football is back.

Holland are seriously good. You have to love a side that responds to pressure by throwing on more strikers in a ‘you might score, but we’ll score two’ style.

The other three top seeds – Austria, Switzerland and Greece, were abysmal. It is often said that the European Championships have a greater quality of football than the World Cup. Not on this showing.

Spain might look good, but they will bottle it. Would it honestly surprise you if Italy knocked them out on Sunday?

France were dreadful, truly dreadful. From the sulkiness to the laziness, you had Domenech’s ineptness, Makalele’s flailing elbows, no creativity, weaknesses in defence, everything was just all wrong.

Russia are a completely different team with Arshavin available.

Petr Cech really needs to drop the ball more with Chelsea, just for amusement sake.

Sweden are not what they once were. Old, tired, and lacking in ideas against Russia, they were duly dispatched.

There is not a more colourful or more likable manager in international football than Slaven Bilic. Croatia could beat anyone on their day.

Germany always do what is required to qualify. Why they are underdogs against Portugal tonight is beyond me given their history of doing exactly what they are doing now.

Expect some tight quarter finals – there is not a walkover in sight.

England would’ve been dumped out in the group stages had they qualified.