Terry regrets Chelsea not imposing home rule

Adrian Curtis
Friday 15 May 2009 00:00 BST
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In an honest assessment of his side's season John Terry admits that Chelsea's poor home form cost them a real chance of winning the Premier League.

The west London club, who face Blackburn Rovers in their final home game on Sunday, have dropped 18 points at Stamford Bridge this season with defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal as well as draws with Everton, Hull, Newcastle, West Ham, Tottenham, and Manchester United. Chelsea now lie third in the table, three points adrift of second-placed Liverpool and nine behind leaders Manchester United.

But while Terry concedes their home form has been disappointing, they have not given up the chase to finish as runners-up. "Last year we went so close in a few different things and we have done so again," he said. "At times we were top of the league and doing well but we threw away too many points at home against lower teams when we shouldn't have done.

"You can always lose the games against Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool, but games like Everton home and away, Fulham when they scored late on, Hull at home are the games that really cost us. We needed to win at Arsenal to secure third place for us and we are still pushing for second place if Liverpool slip up and we can go above them. As players and fans we want to win things and we have that chance with the FA Cup so we'll be trying our utmost to win it and if we do it will be a good season for us."

The FA Cup final at Wembley against Everton on 30 May will be interim coach Guus Hiddink's final game in charge unless the Dutchman decides to change his mind on returning to his role as Russia's manager. It is Chelsea's last chance to win some silverware this season after going out of the Champions League to Barcelona. "People say Barcelona are the best team in the world, and to be fair you can probably hold your hands up and say they are, especially with their ability going forward," Terry said. "We went to Spain with a game plan and did exactly what the manager asked of us, we didn't concede any goals and had one or two chances ourselves, even though they dominated in possession. We took a lot of stick but we knew what we had to do and we did it.

"Back at the Bridge we outplayed them and had more chances, their only shot on goal was the goal. We competed with and outplayed them and really should have gone through.

"It takes a couple of days after a game like that to get over it. After the game the lads were all the same. You went home and probably slept for an hour, woke up, thought about it and watched it again and still didn't believe what was happening."

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