World champions Italy has been knocked off the top of FIFA's world rankings.
Argentina and former top dog Brazil both overtook Italy in the October standings because of results in World Cup 2010 qualifiers.
Italy had leapfrogged them last month because of its own results in Euro 2008 qualifiers.
Argentina is now first, Brazil second and Italy third, ahead of France which gained two slots on the back of two Euro 2008 wins.
Italy also had a Euro 2008 win, against Georgia, as well as a friendly win over South Africa - but these weren't enough to counter Argentina's defeats of Venezuela and Chile.
The big faller this month was England, which fell out of the Top Ten to eleventh place because of a defeat to Russia that put its Euro 2008 chances at risk.
Russia, now well placed to deny England a Euro 2008 place, soared ten places to 16th purely thanks to their October 7 win in Moscow.
In September England had surged three places thanks to two Euro 2008 wins.
Here's October's Top Ten (position change in brackets):
1. Argentina (+1)
2. Brazil (+1)
3. Italy (-2)
4. France (+2)
5. Germany (-1)
6. Spain (+1)
7. Netherlands (-2)
8. Portugal (=)
9. Czech Rep. (+2)
10. Croatia (=)
