During the match between Chelsea and Tottenham last night Ashley Cole flew into a challenge with Tottenham’s Alan Hutton and the challenge could have ended in disaster for Hutton. Cole was booked for the challenge. The FA are now unable to take any more action over Ashley Cole for the challenge as he has been yellow carded already.

Mike Riley who was in charge of the game last night gave Cole a booking after he went into a challenge which was very high and could have spelt disaster for Hutton. The game was full of incidents and ended 4-4 but this tackle has caught the headlines.

As the referee saw and sorted the tackle out there and then it is impossible for the FA to take any more action over the incident.

It means that Cole gets off lightly for a challenge not too different to the one that Man City defender Ben Thatcher made on Pedro Mendes a couple of seasons ago. The player at the time was yellow carded but the FA saw the referee’s decision as wrong and upgraded that yellow to a red card.

After Cole made the challenge he and some of the Chelsea team complained about the decision to the referee as they thought Cole hadn’t done anything wrong.

Tottenham manager Juande Ramos said that the referee thought it was a yellow card offence but we have seen far less bad challenges than this one that have seen the player sent off.

Chelsea manager Avram Grant denied seeing the incident but saw players and coaches from the Tottenham bench jump up and run towards the referee after the tackle was made.

Referee Mike Riley included nothing about the Chelsea player’s reaction to the tackle or about Ashley Cole and this basically spells the end of the matter for the FA.