John Terry has questioned whether Manchester United have
the fight to retain the league title. Chelsea have a five-point
lead over their rivals, having taken 10 points from a possible 12,
while Sir Alex Fergusons team only secured their first win on
Sunday.
Chelsea captain Terry said: Its good for us that United have not
started very well. Maybe they are missing that spark, especially
without Wayne Rooney [injured] and Cristiano Ronaldo [suspended],
who were two great players from last year. "They give them what
theyre all about. And there are other players who are just bedding
in at the moment. Speaking with some of the United players, they
should have beaten Portsmouth away [their second game of the
season]. But they didnt, they picked up a point.
Portsmouth maybe deserved something from us at the weekend, but
they left with nothing. Over the course of a season, however,
playing 38 games, its not physically possible to play well every
week, to play pretty football all the time and do everything right.
For me, there are going to be times when youre going to have to
battle it out away to Portsmouth a horrible place to go or
Aston Villa, Manchester City, Everton. Youve got to go there and
win the battle first. That might take 70 minutes because whoever
youre playing against is up for it, pushing and pressing.
Terry admitted Chelsea slipped up when they should not have done
last season, but thinks the team have regained the ability to grind
out victories. Again, look at the game against Portsmouth. Theyre
a much better side than last year and have really improved. But we
did still manage to grind out a result against them, despite not
playing that well.
We did that in our first and second season under the manager. We
didnt really have that consistency last year. Therell always be
times when teams dominate us a little bit thats not great for
the fans, for Roman [Abramovich] or the manager but what is
pleasing is that we can take that stick and still pick up the three
points. Thats the thing that really pleases me. Weve got that
ability to grind things out and we know we can turn games even when
were not playing that well, grab a goal and maybe sit back and
close the game up. Maybe that wasnt always there last
season.
