Systems come and systems go. When 3-5-2 was first introduced it worked very well, but decent managers worked out how to play against it.
Then a few years ago 4-5-1 was introduced (Mourinho was one of the first) and again it was very succesful to begin with and many teams still play that now.
Over the next 2 or 3 seasons though i think it will become less effective as teams work out the best way to stop it.
4-4-2 has and always will be the best long term system, and almost all teams that have won major competitions have played this system.
However, if you are good enough to introduce a system that works immediately, your team will be succesful until other teams work out how to stop it.
The 4-5-1 is only without the ball though. With the ball and Robben and Duff/Cole killing teams down the wings it was a blatant 4-3-3 (or 4-2-3-1).
I'm not sure this one will be a fad it has been around in Spain for nearly 20 years we've only seen it recently thanks to Benitez and Mourinho coming here. The last few winners of the champions league; Barca, Utd, Milan, Barca, Liverpool, Porto have played this system. (Milan is debatable - the diamond was used but more with two sitting players, Pirlo and Gattuso, but it wasn't a 4-4-2!) It's very adaptable according to if you have the ball or not and what opposition you are against, and works so well against a 4-4-2 in terms of an increase in your possession % in the middle of the park.
In fact thinking about it the Greek side in 2004 is about the only recent major win I can think of that played a 4-4-2 and that was the most unnatural, defensive 4-4-2 I can remember. I cant think of one other unless you count Spain.
World Cup - Italy no, Brazil no, France no
Euro - Spain no (altho I guess they did prior to the final), Greece yes, France no
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