I think Ashley Cole's now the best left-back in the world. He showed against Aston Villa what a phenomenal job he does, and he's one of the big reasons why teams need to overload their right-hand side against Arsenal.
So much of Arsenal's play comes down the left and a couple of Saturdays ago almost all of England's chances against Wales came down that side. The common denominator is Cole.
Of course Thierry Henry, Robert Pires and José Antonio Reyes give Arsenal a huge amount down the left. They're world-class players. But Cole, basically a wing-back or winger playing in a back four, has got amazing energy and there's so much to his game. He's got the ability to open teams up because he can beat people, run with the ball and without it, and see passes.
I think he's the best in his position. At Southampton I worked with Wayne Bridge, who's a great left-back, but Cole's overtaken him. Roberto Carlos does lots of attacking but too much happens against him defensively, whereas Cole is strong defensively now.
It's very hard for teams having to face Cole, plus Henry and Pires or Reyes. Pires started on the right against Villa, so I thought as much would come down that side as the left. But Arsenal still went left almost every time.
You need to get plenty of players on that side to try to cope. One way is to shuffle your midfield across and leave it bare on the other side, with one of the strikers maybe filling in there. In the FA Cup final against Arsenal we played two right-backs, Chris Baird and Paul Telfer.
It's important to make sure your right-back doesn't get sucked out of position because otherwise Cole will get into that space or Henry will wander out there and take a centre-half with him.
A lot of teams use five in midfield against Arsenal but Villa didn't do that. I can see why they kept two strikers because Carlton Cole gave Sol Campbell a problem. I think they decided the best form of defence was to attack the centre-backs and try to get into the space that Ashley Cole leaves when he gets forward.
They might have gone 2-0 up but then Arsenal played football I had never seen. It was like a Disneyland of football, and so much of it was with Cole and the others down the left.