As it's Interlull and the only stories are those relating to International football I thought I better talk about the two biggest local stories. Switzerland are playing Israel tonight in Basel and only need a draw to ensure that they win the group. I think that they can lose and still would be in the play-offs but Greece are hoping for a Isrsael win so they can get the winners spot! St Jakob Stadium was getting ready at lunch time as I went past (after my Gym session) and despite the FIFA ruling of no beer in the stadium I think the fans will manage to get enough before and after the game!

Over the border in France they are relieved to be in the play offs and L'Equipe reported yesterday (here's an English report) that Ligue 1 will be postponed for the 11th round in October, The odd fact is that the games are on the 28th October - well in advance of the play off games in November (14th / 18th) so it really seems a little strange.

Despite the Interlull I am quite looking forward to staying up late and watching the Uruguay - Argentina game tonight.

Thankfully the THIRD international break of the season so far has nearly come to an end and we can chat about the more mundane issues such as Arsenal's defensive injury crisis and how Robin Van Persie can recover from his latest injury (the one he doesn't have yet but will get obviously tonight when he trips over the corner flag and breaks all 206 bones in his body).

For a Wednesday night game there is at least the opportunity to nip into town and have a beer with mates in one of the bars that won't be showing Switzerland's probable defeat to Greece. Hopefully McGuinnesses will be showing all the home nation games as just watching England will be a bit tedious.

Because of this break I've just realised that I'm back again in the UK to watch the forthcoming match against Everton on Saturday afternoon (yes, a 3 o'clock KO) and I haven't missed a home league match despite being in the centre of Europe. I'm just hoping that the current high pressure dissappears as this will lead to fog at Luton Airport and a delay on my Easyjet flight on Saturday morning. I've got a little bit of leeway but I can do without a reduction in the most important part of the day, the pre-match drink. I can't miss out on my London Pride at the Hemingford Arms.

It would be easy to ignore International weeks as an inconvenient blip in the search for glory of your own club side and generally I'm never that impressed with either the quality or excitement provided by International sides at this stage of the season. However, sitting down on a Saturday evening in Switzerland I had the opportunity to watch SIX games live through various channels and what did I learn....

Firstly the games I could watch were: 1) England v Kazahkstan 2) Switzerland v Latvia 3) Serbia v Lithuania 4) Germany v Russia 5) Roumania v France & 6) Bulgaria v Italy and what did I witness.

Well I learnt that:

1) A football fan will watch any game at any time as long as it is interesting and/or exciting which in the case of Roumania v France it certainly was. 2-0 down after 17 minutes France managed to get a draw.

2) Italian commentary is still the best to listen to even if you have no understanding of their language

3) As much as I hate Ashley Cole from an Arsenal perspective, booing a player whose team you've come to support (and after one mistake) is wrong, very wrong

4)How did Lithuania get to the top of their group considering they lost 3-0 tonight.

5)There haven't been many better long range goals than the French equaliser from Gourcuff this evening - watch it if you can...

Oh and one extra thing, Thierry Henry looks old now, don't know why but he just does..

Apparently it is impossible for Robin Van Persie to meet up and/or play with his Dutch team mates without incurring some injury or other. At least this time he tried to get it out of the way early on during the Interlull (!) but he will probably suffer numerous relapses (based on previous history) and will come back in April to help our bid for a UEFA Cup place (pessimistic doom and gloom version). Of course, maybe Arsene Wenger has finally realised a method to remove injury risks from International weeks by provoking minor injuries via a voodoo doll that he will then heal when they return. This would obviously explain the reason Gary Lewin left Arsenal for the England job (optimistic scenario)as he has never been a fan of unorthodox medical remedies.

For such a common occurrence, Van Persie's injury actually made the local Swiss newspaper. However, they suggest an Achilles injury as opposed to the hamstring suggested by Arseblog but I haven't done too much research to check who's right or wrong, only Arsene and his voodoo doll knows.

Meanwhile Switzerland have the difficulty of recovering from their loss to Luxembourg last time round and are pretty much in the last chance saloon this weekend when they play Latvia. The locals don't seem too confident at the moment though.

Maybe Sven knew it all along but was too conservative to give him a go but as the papers will undoubtedly go into THEO overdrive I hope some perspective can be found. Firstly I hope a certain Arsene Wenger who, until now, has been the single most important factor in England's failure to be any good, will be given credit for his nurturing of Walcott. In hindsight, would not Wayne Rooney have been a better (or more consistent)  player if he hadn't been playing every game he could since the age of 16 and ditto Owen (who seems to have too many injuries at a relatively young age now). As I typed that I do realise that Arsenal have been playing Cesc in the same way so maybe his career will struggle as he reaches his mid twenties - it's a fine line I suppose with exceptional talent at an early age.

I haven't seen any of last night's games as I've just awoken here on Bintan but looking through the results I see Switzerland really did manage to be as bad as we probably knew they were. Losing 1-2 to Luxembourg really is a depressing result and makes any of England's poor games in the past seem almost bearable. The local press aren't too please about it. So despite my irrational hatred of International games last night did throw up results that almost made them interesting - Finland drawing with Germany and Portugal losing at home being two of them.