Why Pickford's glove story looks set to run and run for England

Goalkeeper has kept eight clean sheets in succession but is keen to acknowledge the work of the whole team

- David Hytner

As they like to say in the US, dee-fense wins championships. The sentiment is not an exclusively American thing.

"Attack wins you games, defence win you titles," Sir Alex Ferguson once said. And he should know, having won quite a lot of them with Manchester United.

As England look forward to next summer's World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico, the idea has come to resonate, mainly because of how miserly they have been at the back under Thomas Tuchel.

They will secure automatic qualification with two games to spare if they beat Latvia tonight. It ought not be beyond them given Latvia could only draw 2-2 here with the Group K whipping boys, Andorra, on Saturday. And given England have been virtually impregnable in the campaign under Tuchel.