Cole: I’m more than a flair player
Cole’s cheeky back-heel goal against Manchester United last Saturday set Chelsea up for a vital 2-1 victory over their Premier League title rivals.
It was a typical piece of impudence from the 28-year-old England international but such moments of individual flair have led to criticism of his overall game in recent years.
Cole’s silky skills have grabbed all the attention throughout his career but those moments of class have given others the wrong impression of his commitment to a team ethic.
But Cole insists he works as hard as any winger in the game and the label of being a ‘flair’ player is simply unfair.
“I have steel, I’ve got some balls,” Cole said. “People who market me as just a flair player are a bit lazy. Come and watch me for five or six games. I don’t think there’s a winger or an attacking midfielder who works as hard as me. I want to help my team. Sometimes I probably do it too much, maybe I should be a bit more clever, but now is not the time for that.
“Now is the time for everyone at Chelsea to do their jobs with no mistakes. If we don’t make any more mistakes we could win a double.”
Cole will be hoping for another chance to stake his international claim when Chelsea take on Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley today.
The Blues, who also boast a two-point lead over Manchester United at the top of the league, have the double in their sights.
Ancelotti targeted league and cup glory as soon as they were dumped out of the Champions League by Inter Milan and Cole wants to play his part in helping Chelsea become only the seventh team to achieve the feat.
He is still haunted by Chelsea’s failure to win the double four years ago. The Blues were strolling to a second successive title under Jose Mourinho but he missed a late chance to level the scores and they lost 2-1 to Liverpool in the semi-final at Old Trafford.
“We would have played West Ham in the final that year, so you would have definitely fancied us to win the double,” added Cole.
“I was very disappointed because that was one of my best seasons in a Chelsea shirt. I had a great chance, the ball dropped to me five yards out and I skied it into the stands. Two minutes later the whistle goes and I got on the coach feeling I had let people down.
“You remember those things as a footballer. I remember the misses, that was the worst I ever experienced.
“It would be really special if we won the double this season, only six teams have done so, but it’s hard and we’re a long way from doing it.”
Chelsea demolished Villa 7-1 just over a fortnight ago but Cole believes they could provide one of the biggest obstacles to his double dream.
“It’s not going to be that easy again,” he added. “They’re going to be hurt. I have been on the end of 7-1 defeats and it’s not nice.”
Meanwhile, Villa defender James Collins has vowed to prove Chelsea skipper John Terry wrong today.
Terry intimated that Villa tire in the later stages of games after the Blues hammered Martin O’Neill’s side 7-1 at Stamford Bridge only a fortnight ago.
Collins has promised Villa will use Terry’s words as an extra motivation as they seek revenge for the mauling and attempt to reach their second final of the campaign.
Collins said: “You always want to try to prove people wrong in football.
“We had a little chat about it and thought it was quite a strange comment Terry came out with but we can use it to show Chelsea we are fit enough and we will give them a game.
“You can say anything after you have won 7-1 and people will take notice of it. They’ve looked at something and think we do tire but we are in this to try to people wrong.
“The boys certainly don’t feel tired. We do think it was a strange comment so it will give us an extra incentive on Saturday.
“We certainly feel fit and we showed that on Saturday at Bolton in holding on to the 1-0 lead late on.”
Collins is also driven on by wanting to put right the “hurt” of Villa’s mauling and, on his Twitter page after the game, the Welsh international said he was “embarrassed” by his performance.
He said: “It wasn’t a great day for myself personally, and as a team, so I thought I’d say a little something on it. I had some great support on there (Twitter) when I played well and people were writing some nice things so, if I don’t play well, it is up to me to say so.
“I’m my own biggest critic, I’ll always be first to say if I haven’t played well and that’s what I did. I think most people on our side would have been embarrassed and I admit I didn’t play well.”
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