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 FergusonÂ’s team only secured their first win on Sunday.
Chelsea captain Terry said: “It’s 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 they’re 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 didn’t, 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, it’s 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 you’re going to have to battle it out – away to Portsmouth – a horrible place to go – or Aston Villa, Manchester City, Everton. “You’ve got to go there and win the battle first. That might take 70 minutes because whoever you’re 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. They’re 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 didn’t really have that consistency last year. There’ll always be times when teams dominate us a little bit – that’s 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. “That’s the thing that really pleases me. We’ve got that ability to grind things out and we know we can turn games even when we’re not playing that well, grab a goal and maybe sit back and close the game up. Maybe that wasn’t always there last season.”
