Avram Grant, the Chelsea coach, has criticised Emmanuel Eboue for the lack of remorse shown by the Arsenal defender for the late tackle that broke three bones in John Terry's left foot earlier this season and ruled him out for six weeks. Speaking ahead of Sunday's crunch Premier League clash between the two teams, Grant compared Eboue's behaviour to that of Ashley Cole, the Chelsea defender who on Thursday apologised for his studs-up tackle on Alan Hutton of Tottenham in Wednesday's 4-4 draw and subsequent act of petulance towards referee Mike Riley.

"I tell my players all the time to take responsibility about what they do because there are players who have made worse tackles than this and didn't even get a yellow card or apologise," Grant said, pointing an accusing finger at Eboue.

"It has happened to us. Someone sent our captain to hospital for a few days and then he didn't play for a few weeks, I don't want to mention names, but they didn't apologise. Ashley has taken responsibility and apologised and I am giving him credit for it."

Grant said Cole should be applauded for his decision to apologise to Hutton and Riley and called on the Football Association (FA) to only allow team captains to protest to officials on the pitch.

"First you need to give credit to Ashley because he behaved like a mature guy," Grant said. "He saw what he did the day afterwards and he apologised himself. Nobody pushed him to apologise and you need to give credit to him about that.

"He made a tackle and he realised he needed to apologise about that and his behaviour. It is the first time he's done that kind of thing and he apologised. In football, unfortunately things happen, there are worse tackles than this.

"But the rules need to be more clear about some things such as who can go to the referee and who cannot go to him. A rule where the captain can only go to the referee would be good and more clear for everybody because then everyone will respect it."

Grant insisted he would not be telling his players anything special in terms of their behaviour before they face Arsenal in what promises to be a lively, top-of-the-table clash at Stamford Bridge.

"I don't think we need to speak especially about this before this game," said Grant. "It's one of the things we always pay attention to. If you say we've never spoken about it before and now because it's Arsenal we should do, then no. I believe very much in discipline and I believe very much that you need to remind players but I don't think there is a problem in our team."

Grant believes Chelsea, fined three times this season for failing to control their players on the pitch, are sometimes treated in an unbalanced way.

"Chelsea are not doing things that other teams have never done in their lives. Sometimes it is like Chelsea players are always going to the referee and the other teams never do," he said.

Grant is in a confident mood ahead of Sunday's clash despite seeing his team throw away a 3-1 lead against Spurs in midweek.

"I am very happy with my team's form. We've played very good football in the last few games and scored a lot of goals," he said.

"We are in a good shape in the right moment and I am very proud of this and respect what the players have done."

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