Chelsea and Arsenal icon Ashley Cole missed out on some massive names when picking his all-time Premier League eleven. The former left-back played 385 times in England’s top flight, won the league title three times - including as part of Arsenal’s invincible squad from the 2003/04 campaign - and has gone down as one of the greatest players in his position.
Having been a mainstay in English football from his debut in 1999 until he left Stamford Bridge for Roma in 2014, there are few better positioned to have a say on the best players of the Premier League era.
But with a gluttony of superstars over the years, some huge omissions were inevitable - not least the fact that neither Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard, nor former teammate Frank Lampard made the cut during his interview with BR Football.
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Goalkeeper & Defence
Peter Schmeichel; Kyle Walker, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Patrice Evra
Cole started his interview with BR Football by confessing his love for goalkeepers, saying he was fortunate during his playing days to face some top-class shot-stopper. After also noting he didn’t want to be biased - which might have suggested Petr Cech was in the reckoning - he ultimately chose Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel, who redefined the term ‘sweeper keeper’ and famously scored 11 goals during his career.
Kyle Walker edged out Gary Neville for a spot at right-back, with the former Manchester City defender’s pace being a particular highlight in recent history. At centre-back, the ‘chemistry’ Cole witnessed between Rio Ferdinand and John Terry during his 107-cap England career made the pairing an easy choice. Both are widely regarded among the top two greatest defenders in Premier League history, with only Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk worthy of challenging that claim.
For his final defensive selection, Patrice Evra earned the left-back spot. “He could defend, he was aggressive, he could play in and around the halfway line,” Cole explained. Evra and Cole himself perhaps defined a generation of full-backs, during an era when Arsene Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson, and Jose Mourinho were locked in a fierce battle for domestic supremacy in a time before the flying full-back was in vogue.
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Midfield
Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira; Eden Hazard
Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane remain two of the fiercest defensive midfielders English football has ever seen, and the pair would regularly clash on and off the pitch whenever Arsenal and Man United locked horns. Few rivalries in the competition’s history have been as tense as this one, but in Cole's make-believe eleven, the pair would bury their hatchets and fight shoulder to shoulder in a midfield battle.
The idea is that they would have the defensive side of things on lockdown, leaving the ball in safe hands while an uncouth decision to have Eden Hazard operate in an attacking midfield role allows him to pull the strings and dictate attacking transitions. The Belgian completed more dribbles (909 attempted, 595 successful) and was fouled more times (638) than any other player in the Premier League between his arrival in 2012 and departure in 2019.
Hazard had the rare ability to turn games on their head and win matches for Chelsea single-handedly, proving his worth time and again as he won the club's Player of the Year award four times. It does mean, however, that none of England's golden generation midfielders - Scholes, Lampard, or Gerrard - get a nod in Cole’s team. For most, it’s a given that one of them usually makes the cut, if not two, but Cole has ripped up that unwritten rule.
Attack
Mohamed Salah, Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo
No player in the competition's history has ever won the Golden Boot, Playmaker Award, and Player of the Season while their club has lifted the league title. Well, that was until Mohamed Salah achieved such a remarkable feat in the 2024/25 campaign, when he also smashed the record for most goal contributions in a single season, having scored 29 goals and produced 18 assists in 38 appearances.
He now must be considered among the greatest players to ever play in the Premier League - though that mantle currently belongs to Thierry Henry, with both featuring in Cole's lineup. He didn't give an explanation for either of the picks, but did he really need to? In Henry's case, his 175 goals and 74 assists in 258 league appearances for Arsenal, all while being the ultimate entertainer, puts his place far beyond any doubt.
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The last player in Cole's team is none other than five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, who is the last player to win such an award while playing for an English club. Although it's safe to say he won much more after leaving Old Trafford in 2009, it also cannot be understated just how untouchable he was while plying his trade on the wing for a United side that would go on to win a treble in his final term. See Cole's full selection below:
All statistics courtesy of Premier League (correct as of 26/12/2025)