Cole prepared for a torrid time after Chelsea win again

Ashley Cole made a mental note of the abuse meted out to England's players at Pride Park because next month he is steeling himself for worse.

The Chelsea left back was on the receiving end as the crowd made their feelings clear about the country's failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

Scroll down for more

Cole, along with skipper John Terry, did not play in Wednesday's defeat against Croatia.

The verbals dished out to Frank Lampard bordered on the tasteless while Shaun Wright-Phillips got off lightly by comparison.

But it has not escaped Cole's notice that his return from an ankle injury has left him in the firing line when he visits former club Arsenal a fortnight on Sunday.

He said: "I got booed and I didn't even play on Wednesday.

"Compared to what happened to the England guys, I am sure I will get much worse when I go back to Arsenal but I am used to it.

"I'm going there to front up. At Stamford Bridge, Arsenal's supporters threw money at me.

"That was bad but I get it at every game. I love it.

"I'm going there with nothing to prove. They know how good I was when I was with them and what I did for the club.

"It would be nice to go there and shut some people up. It's going to be tough though."

This was anything but tough for Chelsea and they took the lead with the best move of the game in the 17th minute when Salomon Kalou finished off a neat four-man move that gave a glimpse of the beautiful football manager Avram Grant is supposed to be putting together.

The rest of the match was pretty ugly.

Derby's Kenny Miller saw a perfectly good goal wiped out for offside before Andriy Shevchenko's challenge on Giles Barnes went unpunished by referee Andre Marriner.

The arguments about that raged long after the final whistle as Wright-Phillips scored after Lampard's shot had hit the post.

However, Michael Essien is in danger of missing the trip to the Emirates Stadium after being sent off when his flailing arm caught Miller in the face.

Grant, apeing Jose Mourinho, claimed Chelsea were "easy targets" for referees and is considering an appeal.

Derby manager Billy Davies refused to wave the white flag — as did his battling team, in fairness.

But something is clearly not right at the bottom club.

Davies has demanded that the new board, led by Adam Pearson, come up with money — £30million was mentioned in the post-match press conference — otherwise he suggested relegation was a certainty.

Davies said: "The chairman's been here four weeks and it's odd, at any club, that the chairman and manager haven't sat down.

"There's been contact, I've spoken to him on the phone once or twice, but as I've said before we'll have to wait and see what happens.

"We have spent just over £10m. In my opinion this club had to spend a minimum £40m over the two transfer windows to compete.

"There's nine players out there that played in the Championship last year — that's a Championship squad."

LION CUBS Out of 12 England players on view only Derby's Giles Barnes qualifies for the Under 21s. He is quick, can use both feet and has a sharp brain but needs time to progress.