John Terry celebrated rather extravagantly for a stalemate at Emirates Stadium last weekend and his performance won plaudits from Jose Mourinho. Despite their self-sufficiency over their display, they were branded boring by the home fans. The Chelsea captain has now hit back at the Gunners stating that tippy-tappy football, despite its exquisiteness, would never help Arsenal lift the title.
The former England international claimed that all the recent claims would be forgotten once Chelsea are crowned champions of Premier League and believes that their manager has done a tremendous job keeping the Stamford Bridge side firmly at the top despite losing all their strikers to injuries.
a We are definitely not boring and if we do go on to win it; nobodya s going to remember the performances when perhaps ita s not been that exciting. Things then went against us and the manager, being him, came up with the way to get us through games. Thata s where hea s at his best.a
The 34-year-old sarcastically claimed his admiration for possession football as he emulated his manager hinting that winning is all that it takes and added that possession football could never help in clinching the Premier League title. He also revealed why they are now able to maintain a ten-point lead over their nearest rivals in Manchester City.
a Wea ve dug deep and other teams havena t, and that is why they are so far behind us. Possession is great. We could see that from the Manchester United game last week. Possession and tippy-tappy footballa s great, but if you are not winning games youa re not going to win the league.a
The Chelsea skipper seemed delighted to be reminding the fans of their brilliant record in the first half of the season as he stated that his side have defeated all their arch-rivals a Arsenal, Liverpool and the likes – before resorting to the infamous defensive tactics.
a Leta s not forget we were the best side up until Christmas for sure and we have actually beaten the teams who have made things difficult for us. Now we are one step from where we want to be.a
Though his manager believes that the John Terry that dealt off Arsenal crosses last weekend was the best version of himself in a Chelsea strip, the centre-back begged to differ. He confessed that he felt that things were going well halfway into the game and admitted that it felt nice to be lauded by his manager.
a Ia m not too sure [it was my best display]. I got on the end of a lot of crosses and cleared a few. You can feel when things are going well and, definitely, during the game I felt it was, but to hear that from the likes of the manager, who stands there and assesses you day-in, day-out, is really nice. I just have to keep on and keep going, because it can go the other way.a
He heaped praise on their city rivals Arsenal, but tried to justify their defensive tactics as he applauded his side for digging deep at the Emirates Stadium to avoid a defeat. He summed his interview up stating that defending is an art.
a Arsenal are a really good side, especially going forward, so we needed to be on it defensively, which we have been collectively. I just thought, even in midfield, tracking back late on you could see they were a little shattered a little bit, but everyone dug deep. Defending is an art.a
Chelsea are just inches away from claiming their fifth Premier League title and their first in about five years and all the flaks that they are enduring would account for nothing when they finally get to lift the title.