In the wake of a rather remarkable result in Perth it's time to trundle out the old raised more questions than it answered because, despite an upbeat assessment from Mr Ponting in this morning's Australian the answers were largely confirmations of what we already knew.

Mitchell Johnson is, potentially, a match winner with the ball, and is rather handy wielding the willow. Hardly news, one would have suspected.

We've unearthed a handy workhorse in Harris. Well, we knew that out of Adelaide, didn't we? Hilfenhaus worked well into the breeze. Well he should, shouldn't he. And Siddle? Well, he had to play if Mitch fails to deliver, didn't he?

With the bat Watson, Hussey and Haddin continued to provide the backbone with questions over Messrs Hughes, Ponting and Clarke.

Now, there's no such thing as a bad win, and this one was a fair bit better than most, coming as it did in the wake of an innings defeat. There's every chance that, with three down and two to play, we can get the urn back with a win and a draw. England can hold them with a win and a loss or two draws.

On one hand, you could be reasonably upbeat about the home ground advantage, but then again it only needs one or two things to go seriously wrong and we'll be back with the wheels separating from the axle.

A series win would be rather pleasing, of course, and having the Ashes back where they belong will place the universe a little closer to its correct orientation, but we're not going to be getting ourselves back into the top four until we can take out a series or two away from home in India, South Africa or Sri Lanka.

Worse, you can see signs of well, it's back to business as usual innit? in Ponting's remarks.

Actually, Punter, I don't think it is.

We still need to establish a bowling lineup that'll take twenty wickets when Johnson isn't firing. That's one issue. The reemergence of something like the old Fast Bowlers Cartel is an encouraging development, but there are still a few things that need to be sorted.

Greg Chappell was in the ABC commentary box as things were rolled up yesterday, and was suggesting that the four quicks decision was determined by the wicket, which is fine in this case, though one can't help thinking that there was a bit of covering if Mitch fails to deliver in there as well.

There's still no sign that we've resolved the spin bowling question, though I notice that Mr Hauritz is getting among the runs in the Qld-NSW Shield match at Blacktown Oval. He's picked up a wicket as well, but the Bulls aren't the most fearsome of opponents these days (much as it grieves me to say that).

Still, he could be rather handy at eight or nine with the bat in hand, though he'll need sympathetic captaincy when he's bowling. Don't hold your breath, folks.

For the rest of it, Hughes is still a definite question mark, Ponting and Clarke still look rather out of touch and Smith, while he definitely brings something into the mix, is definitely a work in progress rather than the finished article.

On the other side of the fence, the English batting isn't quite as strong as it looked before, though you'd still be inclined to have more out of
Strauss-Cook-Trott-Pietersen-Collingwood-Cook-Prior
in your Fantasy team than you'd be picking from
Watson-Hughes-Ponting-Clarke-Hussey-Smith-Haddin.

The biggest issue for them, though, is the loss of Stuart Broad with the ball, though Tremlett looked rather handy as a replacement and you'd expect to be seeing a lot more of Swann in Melbourne and Sydney.

So we've got an interesting couple of matches to come, particularly when the issue of Ricky's broken little finger comes into play. If he's anywhere near fit he'll play (of course), though one wonders what'll happen for Sydney if (a) he does something to the existing injury in the course of the Boxing Day test or (b) England win in Melbourne.