Ashley Cole has apologised for his lunge at Alan Hutton in Chelsea’s draw with Spurs last night.

The Chelsea and England left back went in high on Alan Hutton sparking the Chelsea players to surround the referee and plead Cole’s innocence.

However, Cole has apologised for the tackle;

“I’d like to apologise to anyone I offended and of course Alan Hutton who I tackled. I didn’t mean to go in hard that way, it was high but I tried to read the ball and get the ball first, but he was a little bit too quick for me. It wasn’t malicious and I’m a little disappointed with what people are saying, that I meant it. Of course it was a bad tackle at the time but in the heat of the moment you want to win the game and win every tackle, and as I said I’m sorry for Alan, but it was never meant.”

Cole also looked to have given referee Alan Riley difficulty over accepting the disciplinary, Cole reacted;

“I’m an emotional person, things can happen on the pitch very quickly but I didn’t mean to disrespect the referee, I recognise this is a part of my game that I need to work on and control.”