Cole braced for a bigger backlash

IF England’s chastened superstars still harboured any illusions as to the scale of the nation’s anger at their recent woes, this bile-soaked evening at Pride Park would have put them right.

Chelsea’s England contingent were jeered from start to finish in the east midlands, and not even a sick-note from last week’s Euro 2008 qualifying defeat to Croatia was enough to spare them from criticism.

Ashley Cole missed that game but suffered just as much as his team-mates John Terry, Frank Lampard and Shaun Wright-Phillips. His consolation was helping Chelsea extend their unbeaten sequence under Avram Grant to 12 games and move within five points of Cole’s old club and leaders Arsenal.

With the added bonus of Manchester United’s slip-up at Bolton, Cole, back after six weeks out with an ankle injury, knows Chelsea are back too, right back in the title hunt as the date with his old Gunners colleagues looms on December 16.

Following his acrimonious split with Arsene Wenger, Cole had to miss the trip to face the music last season because of injury, but after having cash chucked at him by angry Arsenal fans, when the two teams met at Stamford Bridge, he fears the England backlash is child’s play in comparison to what lies in store.

“I got booed, Jesus,” he said. “I didn’t even play on Wednesday night! But compared to what happened to the England guys, I am sure I will get much worse when I go back to Arsenal, but I will go there and front up. I’m a grown man and I am looking forward to it. They threw money at me at Stamford Bridge. It was bad, but I get that every game. I love it.

“I don’t think I have anything to prove to them. They know how good I was when I was with them and what I did for the club and it would be nice to go there and shut some people up. Arsenal are the team to beat in the Premiership and hopefully it could be us that does it. I am really not bothered about the reception I get.

“This is a crucial period for us. We need to get closer, it is still possible we can win the league.”

Chelsea have every chance of winning trophies this season, if they continue to receive such benevolence from officials, like that handed out by referee Andre Marriner. Andriy Shevchenko clearly fouled Giles Barnes seconds before Wright-Phillips momentarily shut up his critics with his first goal of the season and tv replays showed Kenny Miller’s second half strike should not have been ruled out for offside.

All of which makes Grant’s whingeing about referee’s having an agenda against his side, following the red card collected by Michael Essien in stoppage time all the more absurd.

Essien, who only came on as a 75th minute substitute, slapped Miller in the face, but it did not stop Grant bleating almost as loudly as Jose Mourinho, but without the style. “I don’t like to speak against referees I’ve not done it many times in my life and I don’t want to do it now. But I had a feeling — and they told me before I came to Chelsea and it’s true — that we are an easy target for getting red cards.”

Derby manager Davies has more crucial things on his mind, like finally getting to sit down with new chairman Adam Pearson and ask him if he is going to get the estimated £30m (€41.5m) he thinks he needs to buy six players to save the club’s Premier League life. That is a conservative estimate to fill the kind of gaping holes in his defence that allowed Salomon Kalou to waltz into the penalty area and smash home Steve Sidwell’s clever pass.

Pearson has been jetting all around the world trying to bring in fresh finance and Davies has not seen him for around three weeks and has still not been to a board meeting with his new boss. “We have spent just over £10m (€13.8m). In my opinion this club had to spend a minimum £40m (€55.4m) to compete. Without investment, we are not good enough to stay up, but we knew that.”

DERBY COUNTY (4-4-2): Bywater 7; Griffin 5, Davis 5, Moore 5, McEveley 4; Fagan 5 (Earnshaw 85,4), Leacock 4, Oakley 8 (Feilhaber 84,4), Jones 4; Barnes 5 (Howard 75, 5), Miller 6. Subs not used: Price, Mears.

CHELSEA (4-4-2): Cudicini 6; Belletti 6, Terry 7, Ben-Haim 6, A Cole 6; Wright-Phillips 6, Mikel 9, Sidwell 8 (Essien 75,4), Lampard 6 (Pizarro 89); Shevchenko 6, Kalou 7. Subs not used: Hilario, J Cole, Alex.

REFEREE: Andre Marriner (West Midlands) 5: Was right to send off Michael Essien, but blotted his copybook by missing the foul by Shevchenko in the build up to Chelsea’s second goal and disallowed a perfectly good goal by Kenny Miller.

MATCH RATING: ** One team that can’t play against another team that did not have to try too hard. Never the ingredients for a classic and so it turned out.