Cole loving life at Lille

On-loan Lille attacker Joe Cole believes Rudi Garcia’s side are the best in France, despite lying third in Ligue 1.

Having signed on a one-year loan from Liverpool on transfer deadline day in the summer, the Englishman has yet to suffer a Ligue 1 defeat.

On Sunday, that record was preserved with a 0-0 draw away to Paris Saint-Germain, and though the capital club have spent extensively, Cole feels they are more than a match for the Parc des Princes outfit, who are joint top of the standings on 37 points.

“I feel we are the best team in the league,’ he told Ligue 1’s official website.

“I wouldn’t say that unless I believed it, but the truth is that we are two points behind at the moment and so we have a lot of work to do but I think we are the best team in the league. But we have to go and prove that. We have put ourselves out there, we are the champions from last year and we want to go and do that again.”

Cole is relishing the prospect of the winter break, which starts after Lille face Nice at home on Wednesday night, with hostilities only resuming on the second Saturday of January.

“I’ve not had a Christmas off since I was 15, so I’m very happy about that,” he said. “I can spend some time with my family. You know my little girl’s getting to the age now where she maybe doesn’t know what it is but she gets all excited about the tree and the lights and everything.”

“It’s great to be going home at Christmas and seeing my family and not going in and having pasta and chicken on Christmas Day and things.”

“I’m going to go and watch a Liverpool game to say hello because obviously I’m still contracted to them, and I’ve got no other time to see Chelsea or West Ham. But I’m sure I’ll catch a game at some point and I wish them all the best and I hope that they can continue to keep winning as much as they can.”

Should the offensive midfielder play on Wednesday night, he will make his 15th Ligue 1 appearance, having scored two goals so far for the defending champions.