This is the horrific lunge by Ashley Cole on Tottenham’s Alan Hutton that sparked furious scenes at White Hart Lane last night and has sparked some serious debate in football circles today. Cole jumped at Hutton from 2 yards away while the Scot was in full flight down the right flank, catching the defender half way up the shin at roughly the same point where Eduardo was kicked in the tackle that broke his leg. After the incident Cole, ably assisted by Terry, Lampard, Drogba and Carvalho, surrounded the ref Mike Riley ridiculously claiming that Ashley had played the ball, and then verbally abused the ref as he patiently held a yellow card to book the England defender. What followed was one of the most bizarre incidents this season as Cole turned his back on the ref and in a childish fashion ignored the ref’s attempts to book him, Sky sports news had this transcript of the refs words to Cole:

“Your foot’s up in the air… No calm down Ashley, no. Turn around… Ashley. No turn around and face me… Ashley you’ll get sent off in a minute. Show some respect. Calm.”

The tackle was worthy of a red card on its own, meeting all the criteria of what a dangerous career-ending tackle is: he jumped into it, he went in high over the ball and he had his studs showing. The ref, however, opted for a yellow card. As Riley saw the incident and sanctioned the player as he saw fit, the FA are unable to take any further action. The petulant show of disrespect after the tackle could have easily earned Cole a second yellow card and his Chelsea teammates who surrounded the ref were also lucky to escape bookings.

It is not the first time Chelsea have been accused of abusing match officials, they have been fined 3 times already this season for failing to control their players and assistant coach Steve Clarke was fined for verbally abusing the ref in the Man United game in September. All this follows on from the ’snarling cup final’ last season in which Chelsea player Frank Lampard sparked a mass brawl which was seen around the world, but escaped punishment. It seems that to a mega rich club like Chelsea a fine or two won’t stop them breaking the rules; they still continue to abuse officials, tap up players and ignore the FA - and they will do until players start receiving bans or they are docked points.

You can see highlights of the game including Coles challenge here.

Popularity: 5% [?]