Ash: We'll rip Gunners apart

ASHLEY Cole has warned Arsenal that Chelsea are ready to fire after finally getting all their big guns back ahead of Mondays nights derby clash.

The faltering Barclays Premier League champions will be at fullstrength for the first time in four months at the Emirates Stadium,where they romped to a 3-0 win last season.

Chelsea are on their worst run in the league for more than a decade,having won just one of their last seven games and slumping from top tofourth spot.

Injuries to the likes of John Terry, Frank Lampard and Michael Essienhit them hard but all three are back, with star midfielder Lampard setto start his first game since August.

And England left-back Cole is confident the Blues can reignite their title defence with a victory over his former club.

Weve been disappointing in our last six games and its a big contrastto how we started the season, but we have a lot of big players back tofitness and its going to give us a boost, he said.

Any team who has their top players out is going to be affected.

The players who have come in have done a good job but youre alwaysgoing to miss JT, Lamps and Essien. We seem to play better when theyare all in the team; hopefully we can start to push on.

Theyre major players for us and we have missed their personalities, desire, will to win and leadership.

! We have been unlucky in games, even though we havent been playing well. We have still had a lot of shots and chances.

It has not gone our way but, now the big guys are back, hopefully wecan turn our season around because it is getting to the important part.

Were fourth in the table; we have to get back on track and start winning again.

Manager Carlo Ancelotti yesterday claimed Arsenal were afraid ofDidier Drogba, who has scored 13 goals in 13 games against them.

The Ivory Coast striker has not been in top form this season followinga malaria scare and also had to cope with the pressure of the captaincyin Terrys absence.

Cole added on Chelsea TV: It was hard for Didier to get the guys morale up and focused.

But now everyone is back, everyone is going to come together again and push on.

Arsenal are a point better off than Chelsea in the table but this did not stop Manchester United winger Nani
dismissing their title chances this week.

Ancelotti disagrees with that assessment, saying: Arsenal, ManchesterCity and Tottenham have an opportunity and the skill to fight for thetitle until the end.

It will be a race with balance because a lot of teams have the ability ! to win, not just United.

And despite Chelsea boasting five wins in their last five meetings withthe Gunners, Ancelotti will take nothing for granted on Monday.

Either team can win this game, he said.

It will be an exciting game in this period.

Im happy to play this game because weve moved on from the bad moment and were able to come back and fight for the title.

Ancelotti yesterday bemoaned a fixture schedule that sees his side play Bolton less than 48 hours after Monday nights match.

He is understandably reluctant, therefore, to set a points target forthe hectic festive period, saying: Its difficult to think about this.

Its easier to think that we have to do our best to win against Arsenal and then against Bolton.


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