Five reasons why Aussie fans shouldn't fear

It is tradition in Australia to deny the existence of any losing, overseas Test series. They are often scrubbed from the record too for that matter. Ask any Australian to name the two most recent Ashes series and they will undoubtedly tell you of how Mitchell Johnson single-handedly took every English wicket in the 2013-14 summer to help retain the urn after their next most recent win in 2006-07.

With Australia comprehensively beaten at Edgbaston, this Ashes tour is beginning to be detached from memory. Right now it is looking like the family photograph that Marty McFly carried around in 'Back to the Future' - two siblings are now erased and unless natural order is restored, the whole phenomenon will be deleted from a nation's consciousness.

Thankfully both England and the cricket gods are doing their best to help restore that order, here are five ways they are going about it:

1. The English team have spent a while cultivating an impressive pattern of winning and losing Tests. In fact, their past seven games have resulted in a win-loss alternating sequence. We know that cricketers are instinctively superstitious creatures, so the notion of breaking this pattern must be downright terrifying to the English team. We'll chalk down a win at Trent Bridge and pin our hopes on the ever-reliable London weather to come through with some substantial rain for the fifth and final Test.

2. Jimmy Anderson was back to his metronomically-beautiful ball-swinging self at Edgbaston, and now let us all rejoice as he has been ruled out of the fourth Test with a side strain. The ground staff now face a confusing task after being ordered to produce pitches to the exacting specifications of England's most prolific wicket-taker. Do the Trent Bridge ground staff now, with a mere week's notice, produce a wicket to favour the strengths of Stuart Broad? But how to ready a pitch for a bowler with a penchant for wayward deliveries?

3. Sure, Australia's middle order looks highly suspect, but so too does England's top order. Both teams are playing at least one batsman short, Adam Lyth has scored just 72 runs in six innings at an average of 12. Even the out-of-sorts Michael Clarke is averaging a blistering 18.80 in the series. Lyth's unquenchable enthusiasm for lunging at errant balls flying past off stump will play well into Australia's ongoing belief that good line and length deliveries provide suitable diving practice for ageing wicketkeepers.

4. For all that talk about not being scared of Johnson, those expressions worn by Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes after falling to furious Johnson bouncers, were like looking into the eyes of fear itself.

5. Australia have not lost four consecutive Ashes series in England since 1896. Who could forget WG Grace leading his men out to that series victory at The Oval within two days of the third Test? I'll tell you who forgets it, every Australian. It didn't happen, nor did the three preceding series'. Of course, Australia's 1899 tour was a complete success, as was their famous 1896 tour to USA where they clobbered the Gentlemen of Philadelphia.

With all of this working for Australia, simply showing up at Trent Bridge gives them one hand on the urn.