Les Bleus get the blues

Tuesday night saw the home nations turn in a pretty dismal collection of results - and it was no better for France, who went down 1-0 at home to Spain, surrendering their lead at the top of their World Cup 2014 qualifying group to the reigning world and European champions.

Moussa Sissoko made another appearance from the substitute's bench, his arrival greeted by a chorus of boos - though those were directed at the player he was replacing, misfiring Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema.

Meanwhile, having sat out Friday's disappointing draw with Finland, Dreamboat played the first 70 minutes. The result isn't likely to have done much for the mood of a player who has confessed to suffering from depression following Euro 2012. That (and fatigue) would explain our stand-in skipper's sluggish start to the season, when there did seem to be some kind of lingering malaise that some were attributing to our failure to reunite him with pal Mathieu Debuchy. Thanks are apparently due to Jonny Wilkinson and Rafa Nadal for helping him dispel the black clouds, and here's hoping he can stay fit and firing on all cylinders for our run-in.