When judgement day comes, a day when the good lord is going to be swamped, will He look back favourably on the events of this week as the moment English football returned to the path of righteousness, thanks to his faithful servant, Fabio Capello and his disciple Rio Ferdinand? Or will the current vogue for goodness in football melt with the Easter snows?

This particular episode of morality began last Wednesday when Ashley Cole tried to sever Alan Hutton’s leg, then bristled with contempt when referee Mike Riley had the nerve to book him. This display of insolence stoked sufficient national outrage that a feeling of “something has to be done” hovered over last weekend’s fixtures.

That news didn’t reach the ears of country bumpkin Javier Mascherano (rural folk are always last with the fashions) in time to prevent him from walking into this new plate glass window of justice and off he went on Sunday. Had Ashley Cole not been so obnoxious, this new found desire to punish footballing gobbiness may never have materialised, so Mascherano arguably paid for Ashley Cole’s sins.

England manager Fabio Capello then steps into this morality play by naming Rio Ferdinand as England captain, in a direct snub to Cole’s whinging partner, John Terry. Falling back on some good old-fashioned Catholicism, boss Capello chooses to believe that Rio has served his penitence for past indiscretions and has sufficiently redeemed himself to be the “role model” captain the England team deserves.

Just how reformed a character Rio Ferdinand is remains to be seen, but if managers choose to make key decisions based on players’ suitability as role models, surely that extends beyond the captaincy? The message doesn’t get across to the kids too clearly if the captain is a born-again hero, but the other ten are a rabble of cheats and cut-throats. Point being that at left back in the probable England line-up for tonight’s game, the name “A Cole” appears.

Perhaps Ashley will take advantage of the bigger stage to put on an even more spectacular display of his charmless disregard for authority. Or perhaps justice will be somehow be visited upon him in the form of a hatrick of own goals and a leg broken in exactly the same place he tried to sever Alan Hutton’s. Or as is most likely, something else will catch the eye, the story will move on, and this little chapter of moral indignation will close as swiftly as it opened.