The managers should take the lead in ensuring that players behave. By his comments, Grant is condonong Cole's behaviour. Its time the FA and EUFA got tough on these overpaid primadonas.

Hamad Lone, London, England

"However, Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, said yesterday that harassing referees is “absolutely ridiculous” and that his side had worked hard in recent years to show greater respect."

Any Manager can stop this behaviour now if they want to. You never saw Roy Keane or any of his teammates haranguing referees when he played for Brian Clough.
Now there was a manager who could actually control his players, who genuinely loved the game and would rather lose than have allow his players to indulge in such unsportsmanlike behaviour.

Grant, Ferguson, Wenger and the rest of the so-called managers in the premier league should be disgusted with their teams and themselves.

The sooner ref's are allowed to send players off for trying to influence decisions the better!

Glenn, Wales,

Have to say as a parent and an Arsenal fan, Cole is not going to be a role model or anything positive any parent or teacher will want children associating with. His disloyalty, disrespect, rudeness, mouthy, childish, behaviour to his wife; let alone a figure of authority like Riley, or Arsene Wenger, or the club that gave him the life he has, is exactly that parents want to rid their homes of.

All of this was shown to his wife recently, never mind his show the other night after a bad tackle intended or not, his reaction and his team mates reaction was appalling, Reminded me of a bunch of chavs mouthing off to a guy outside his house who objected to them damaging his car.

Iconic managers would have subbed him, sold him for his reprehensible actions on and off the pitch. The only good thing about it is, barring him bottling it , arsenal fans will have 90 mins to let him know what a little scum bag he is on sunday, if he isnt sent off before the end of the game

lordhillwood, london , GB

There's no point for mud-slinging, the winner is the king.

William Fok, Hong Kong, China

Avram Grant had some respect from this Arsenal fan but gone it is now. His silly mind games and unwarranted criticism of Arsenal, while seeming to make Ashley Cole a saint, are plain silly and quite unprofessional - and he is wrong.

The best Arsenal response is a win on Sunday. Go for it, Gunners!

Lester May, London NW1, UK

If a video referee, watching the same replay as the crowd could on giant screens in the ground, handed down a verdict through Mike Riley's ear piece (A) Ashley Cole would have no where to go by pilloring Riley, as the video gantry would be the people he'd need to turn his back to, and (B) everyone would see that it deserved the card. Technology thus takes away the heat from the situation by showing exactly what happened. If protestation or dissent was ungentlemanly after that, another rule, again a la rugby, to march the ball a further 10 yards toward goal could act as a deterrant.

Jonathon Charles, Hong Kong,

Terry was lucky to still be on the field that day. He is fortunate that his cowardly assault on a prone Fabregas did not cause a severe injury. The intent to injure Fabregas was obvious, but unsuccessful. Had Fabregas been injured in the same maner as Eduardo, would there have been the same level of press criticism of the thug that is Terry as was directed at Taylor?
You mention the power of the Chelsea midfield, where there are some tremendous athletes, backed up by the brawn of Terry and Drogba. But where is the entertainment? It is pretty thin on the ground at the Bridge, which is why they can't always fill their ground, and amazingly still had tickets for sale for this week-end advertised on the radio in the last do or so.

Andrew, London,

Grant describes Cole as a 'model of contrition'. And therein lies part of the problem. Not a word of condemnation for Cole's disgraceful behaviour. We are of course in the world of Football plc . Decency and respect for authority belong to the dim and distant past along with leather caseballs and men playing the game rather than juvenile delinquents. A short dressing down by managers such as Bill Shankley, Harry Catterick or Brian Clough would have concentrated Cole's mind wonderfully. As it is, he will carry on as before until he meets a referee with some backbone. Is there such a thing?

Callan, Liverpool, England