Ashley Cole's performance rubbed salt in the wounds of the Arsenal camp, writes Dominic Fifield
THE ONLY Invincible on show here has proved his point. Ashley Cole has waited three and a half years for an occasion such as this, an opportunity to choke the abuse from fans who once sang his name and now spit it out only in disgust. Arsenal continue to be hurt by players they once counted as their own, with this a reminder of what they have lost.
The wounds ripped open by Cole’s defection across the capital, and then exacerbated by the tactless claim he made in his autobiography, that Arsenal’s contract offer of £55,000-a-week constituted a case of “taking the piss”, continue to smart.
The scars may not be as raw as those inflicted by Emmanuel Adebayor’s departure for Manchester City in the summer, but they clearly linger. The full back was pursued by a chorus of boos yesterday, even as he left the field, 17 minutes from time. At one point a water bottle was thrown at him.
Yet in the face of such disdain he will have relished the part he played in dropping his hosts from the title race. His tentative prodding and positioning of the opening exchanges was out of character, reflecting more a player coming to terms with the extra protection on his shin after a recent depressed fracture than a defender shrinking from the limelight. If anything he was rusty, not unnerved. Once Cole had found his feet, his markers could not keep up.
The two goals carved from the left flank in the four minutes before the break, which condemned Arsenal to a first home defeat since Chelsea won here in May, helped to leave his former club 11 points adrift of the top of the table. The swerve inside and then outside an aghast Bacary Sagna to create the space for the opener was glorious, the subsequent cross perfect for Didier Drogba to steer a volley in off the far post.
The 28-year-old emerged from the celebratory pile-up on the touchline to provide a second goal with a cross into the six-yard box that invited panic. William Gallas slid in, Thomas Vermaelen flinched and Drogba’s jubilation was almost apologetic before he made for the provider. Cole has been outstanding since recovering from the ankle injuries that hindered his early career at Stamford Bridge and briefly suggested that Arsenal had gained more from the exchange for cash and Gallas. This was the first time he has inflicted such deep hurt on his former employers.
The England defender had seen Adebayor inflame an already fiery relationship with Arsenal’s supporters earlier this season. Cole’s reaction to Vermaelen’s own-goal here was to sprint half the length of the pitch, as if emulating the Togolese, though where Adebayor had slid in celebration towards the travelling support at Eastlands, Cole made for his manager. Carlo Ancelotti welcomed him with open arms.
“Ashley was quiet before the game, but focused on the pitch,” said the Italian. “For the English players, matches like this mean more and they put more strength and concentration into them.”
It meant everything to Cole. Arsene Wenger, standing distraught only a few yards away as the defender and Ancelotti celebrated, could hardly bear to watch.
The Frenchman has lost Gael Clichy and Kieran Gibbs to injury in recent weeks and every glimpse of Cole clad in blue must still fill him with regret. The likes of Clichy, Johan Djourou and Cesc Fabregas were at the club with Cole during the Invincibles’ 2003-04, title-winning campaign, but Cole was the one remaining memory of that glorious year to be on show.
The full-back collected two league titles, three FA Cups and a Champions League runners-up medal while with Arsenal in north London.
Yesterday he left the Emirates Stadium turf troubled by his right hamstring – “It is a small tear we think, nothing serious,” said Ancelotti – but potentially en route to a first Premier League championship as a Chelsea player. How his former club would wish to find themselves in that position.
Guardian Service
