THE world seems a much better place today.

England are no longer the whipping boys of the World Cup, Emile Heskey is not a cart horse and neither is Sven Goran Eriksson tactically naive. Well, not until the next game anyway!

Those who were quick to criticise and write off England after a frustrating opening game had their words rammed back down their throats by a simply stunning team performance.

Trevor Sinclair, Ashley Cole, Danny Mills and Nicky Butt were fantastic against the World Cup favourites - who'd have thought it?

Sol Campbell and Rio Ferdinand looked a top quality partnership at the heart of the defence for the second successive game.

Paul Scholes was technically terrifying and David Beckham dug in and showed true heroism in converting that penalty.

England's captain is showing there is another side to his game while he struggles to find the kind of creative form Scholes showed in spades yesterday.

Beckham must be frustrated his killer pass, shot and cross is not there yet but he is to be commended for showing true grit and an unflinching determination. And who cares how he plays as long as he keeps on banging in winning penalties like that.

Butt was the man for me. We needed someone to win the ball in the middle and gave the creative Argentinians nightmares. That allowed England to play and their passing and holding the ball was as good as it was bad against Sweden.

That gave Michael Owen the chance to put the frighteners on Argentina which he did brilliantly several times including the crucial one when he won the penalty.

Click HERE for Neil Bonnar's daily column on our special World Cup pages