And the Chelsea manager lit the touchpaper under tomorrow’s London derby by saying Emmanuel Eboue had put John Terry out of the game for two months – and Arsenal never apologised.
Grant believes Cole’s public apology for his tackle on Tottenham’s Alan Hutton on Wednesday, for which he escaped with a yellow card, shows that he has accepted responsibility.
“Others have made worse tackles than Ashley and not been red-carded. Our team discipline is good,” said Grant. “No less than other teams and better than others.”
And he stoked up the pre-match tension as he pointed the finger firmly at Arsenal’s Eboue, whose tackle in the December clash between the two teams put skipper Terry out of the game for more than two months with a broken foot.
Our team discipline is good
“A player at Arsenal whose name I will not say tackled our captain who went to hospital and was out for a few weeks. He did not apologise. We are still waiting for that,” said Grant.
“So I will give credit to Ashley. He is mature and he apologised. No one forced him to. If it was not the first time he had done this then maybe I would talk to him but this was the first.”
Eboue’s tackle in Arsenal’s 1-0 win at the Emirates ruled Terry out of action for eight weeks.
The hangover from that incident is just one of several potential flashpoints in tomorrow’s game at Stamford Bridge, which both sides need to win. The loser could well find themselves out of the title race.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said: “Eboue’s challenge was not a good one but it was not terrible.
“I regret the injury to Terry. But having looked at it again, it’s a kind of accident because he pushed his leg through.
“Maybe Eboue could have eased off earlier, I don’t know. Only Eboue can tell you what he has really done.”