Barring the most unlikely of English miracles, Australia will win back the Ashes on Monday.

After 16 frustrating years, England were only able to hold onto them for 15 months. They will look back on this series with a lot of frustration, knowing they could have done a lot better.

The result shouldn’t come as a surprise, however. The Australians are significantly stronger than last time while the English are significantly weaker. The loss of Michael Vaughan and Simon Jones has been felt by the tourists. Neither Sajid Mahmood nor Jimmy Anderson are at the same standard as the Welsh paceman, and Ian Bell has been found wanting in the No.3 position.

As for Australia, Michael Hussey is a freak, averaging 119 in the series.

England have been able to match it with the Australians at times, but not frequently enough. The first Test was a stark insight into their state of mind and preparation. They expected to just to turn up and believed everything would take care of itself, but it didn’t. They reverted to their old habits of defensive, insular cricket and it came back to bite them.

The Gabba showing put them on the back foot and they have never recovered. Either a good period of batting is ruined by some poor shot making, or just when they are on top in the field they drop a catch and let the Australians back into the game.

Australia have match winners everywhere, while England have none, and that, in a nutshell, is the difference.

Ricky Ponting has been lucky that when the going has got tough he has had the luxury of throwing the ball to two players who reside among the top three of most Test wickets ever taken. Ultimately, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath have been the difference between the two sides.

It will be interesting to see what happens at Melbourne and Sydney and whether England can save any face. A 5-0 series whitewash, which has only happened once before in Ashes history, could happen again. It happened in 1920-21 when Johnny Douglas’s touring team were outclassed by Warwick Armstrong’s side in every facet of the game -- similar to what is happening over 85 years later.