A beacon of consistency, you could count the errors Cole made during eight trophy-laden years as a Blue on one hand. The long-time England international was positionally aware, rock solid in the tackle, and adept at dramatic and vital goalline clearances that still linger in the memory.

What he perhaps did not get enough credit for was his attacking play. Seven goals and 33 assists in 337 Chelsea appearances only tells part of the story. Cole was dynamic down our left, capable of interchanging play with those around him – often Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda – or overlapping to get a cross in or create space for others.

There is no finer example of Cole at his attacking best than the majestic goal he scored against Sunderland in January 2010.

It was the third in a scintillating 7-2 win that equalled the most goals scored by Chelsea in a top-flight game, and preceded two more sevens and an eight as we closed out the 2009/10 campaign at Stamford Bridge in style.

Against Sunderland, Cole headed an early chance wide from a cross by his namesake Joe. It was a sign of his and the team’s attacking intent, in what manager Carlo Ancelotti would describe afterwards as our best performance of the season yet.

The French pair of Nicolas Anelka and Malouda put us 2-0 up before Cole’s moment of magic midway through the opening 45 minutes. From inside his own half, John Terry put a lofted first-time pass into the path of the marauding left-back. Running at full tilt didn’t stop Cole bringing the ball under his spell with an immaculate first touch.

As Sunderland skipper Lorik Cana slid across to block the shot, Cole calmly cut the ball inside him before using the outside of his left boot to find the far corner.

‘That is a goal any striker on earth would have been proud of,’ enthused Chelsea TV commentator Ben Andrews high up in the East Stand. ‘Dennis Bergkamp, eat your heart out!’

In the remaining minutes of the first half, Cole overlapped onto an Anelka pass to cross for Lampard to slide us 4-0 up. Our match report noted Cole was ‘playing almost as an additional striker’, and it needed a Marton Fulop save to deny the defender his second goal of a very productive first half. Unfortunately, an injury sustained when scoring meant Cole was withdrawn during the interval as a precaution more than anything. Chelsea were four goals to the good, after all.

‘The best goal was Ashley's,' Ancelotti decided after the game. ‘He had fantastic movement and scored a fantastic goal, and it was a fantastic pass from John Terry!’

Former Blues favourite Clive Walker was also enamoured with what he saw.

‘The goal Ashley Cole scored was absolutely terrific,’ he said. ‘To pull the ball out the air coming over your shoulder is difficult but once he got the first touch, it was a lovely finish.’

Despite the deluge of goals that rained down on opposition teams over the next few months as we secured the first and to date only Double in our history, Cole’s goal would not be forgotten.

Out of the then-record 103 Premier League goals we netted, and the 39 more bagged in cup competitions, Cole’s strike against Sunderland was voted the best of the bunch at the club’s end-of-season awards ceremony.

'I had been practicing hard in training with Lamps and Didier and normally they went over the bar,' Cole said about his goal at the awards ceremony.

'They teach me shooting techniques and at the time it was just instinct to hit the ball with the outside of my foot.

'In training the day before I did the same to a player when JT gave me the ball, I'm not going to name him, and funnily enough I said I was going to score in this game.

‘It was a great ball from JT, we have a good understanding and we try to do that a lot, and the guy dived in when probably he shouldn't have done. As I took the touch, I did a 'Cruyff' and luckily the keeper went down and I chipped it over him.’

A few days after the ceremony, Chelsea thumped Wigan 8-0 to win the Premier League title for a third time. Fittingly, it was Cole that put the seal on our record victory with a well-executed volley in stoppage time. It was his fourth of the season, the best total of his career.

'I said before the start of the season that I was going to get five,’ insisted Cole. ‘I am happy with the way I played this season, and happy with the goals I contributed to the team.’

Already the envy of defenders and the bane of strikers and wingers, Cole's attacking contributions, which peaked during that epic 2009/10 campaign, really did make him the complete left-back.