"Form is temporary, class is permanent", is the rather hackneyed justification pundits use when trotting out the old familiar faces in picking putative England teams. Form, indeed, can be ephemeral and difficult to gauge objectively and that is probably why we often hear the same names bandied about for England selection from those who bemoan the paucity of native talent and claim there are no alternatives to the regular members of the squad.

Fabio Capello, the England manager, has had his fingers burned by his attempt to come up with a system of rating players and would probably find any reminder of the Capello Index about as unwelcome as a juggler at a funeral. The analysts at Opta, however, have come up with a statistical analysis of Premier League players' current form and their findings offer a few intriguing candidates for selection that may not have immediately come to mind.

Opta's new method of evaluating players is calculated from analysis of over 350 different types of action so far this season, with each action being awarded a positive or negative score. In layman's terms, a player earns points for positive actions, such as a shot on target, successful pass or cross, tackle won, and loses them for failing to pass or cross, when he comes off second best in a tackle, concedes a goal or receives a card. Opta then gives the player a score out of 100. Only those who have been on the field for more than 500 minutes are included on the list of 239 players that was published today.

There is not one English player in the top 10 but we have been through the list and come up with an England XI, lined up in a 4-4-2 formation, of the players Opta rates as the best in their position in the Premier League so far this season.

Ben Foster, surprisingly, is the highest English player on the list with a score of 77 and pips Joe Hart to the No1 shirt. The back four is made up of Luke Young, who has retired from international football, at right-back, John Terry and Rio Ferdinand resuming their partnership in central defence and Ashley Cole on the left.

Marc Albrighton, who has had such a bright start to the season with Aston Villa, would line up on the right of midfield with Steven Gerrard forming an all Scouse central pairing with the Newcastle United captain, Kevin Nolan. James Milner would slot in on the left, edging out Stewart Downing, a more orthodox left-winger, by two points.

Up front Andy Carroll would take the No9 shirt with Sunderland's on-loan Manchester United forward Danny Welbeck as his foil.

This, then, is how an in-form England team would line up against France tomorrow using the Opta ratings and with the next best candidates for each role on the bench.

Should England line up with Andy Carroll and Danny Welbeck in attack? Photograph: Guardian

England Premier League XI (4-4-2): Ben Foster (77 points); Luke Young (54), John Terry (72), Rio Ferdinand (59), Ashley Cole (68); Marc Albrighton (72), Steven Gerrard (75), Kevin Nolan (66), James Milner (64); Andy Carroll (74), Danny Welbeck (64). Substitutes: Joe Hart (76), Micah Richards (53), Phil Jagielka (58), Gary Cahill (58), Leighton Baines (66), Joey Barton (63), Paul Scholes (65), Scott Parker (65), Stewart Downing (62), Darren Bent (64), Luke Varney (57).

Of those 22 names, two – Young and Scholes – have retired, 17 are current internationals, ones of recent vintage or are in today's squad and only Albrighton, Nolan and Welbeck have yet to win full caps. Perhaps it shows Capello is doing something right after all.

A reminder of how much the Premier League is dominated by foreign talent is shown by contrasting the English XI with one drawn up from the best overseas players, position by position. The 11 English players have an average mark of 67.72, their foreign counterparts, headed by Rafael van der Vaart, currently the Premier League's top-rated player, are more than 10 points a man better on average with 78.09.

Overseas Premier League XI (4-4-2): Petr Cech (81); Bacary Sagna (76), Nemanja Vidic (77), Alex (74), Gaël Clichy (70); Nani (81), Cesc Fábregas (81), Michael Essien (79), Florent Malouda (79); Rafael Van der Vaart (82), Carlos Tevez (79).

The lowest-ranked player on the list is, incidentally, Wolves' Richard Stearman with a score of 21 and Blackburn's back-four marks – Michel Salgado (38), Gaël Givet (37), Ryan Nelsen (37) and Martin Olsson (22) – will give the analysis addict Sam Allardyce the jitters.

What do you make of the in-form England XI? Is it worth someone throwing the form book into Capello's window?