John Terry Blasts Chelsea Players After Wigan Athletic Defeat

The England captain was disappointed with the work-rate of his team-mates...

Sep 28, 2009 12:10:28 AM

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John Terry has slammed the effort of his fellow Chelsea players in the surprise 3-1 loss to Wigan Athletic on Saturday, saying that the Blues did not "work hard and fight".

With the loss surrendering top spot to arch-rivals Manchester United, Terry emphasised the importance of getting back on track, with vital matches against APOEL in the Champions League and against Liverpool coming up.

“When you go to places like Wigan, you’ve got to match them — match their work-rate, match their effort, win your headers, win your tackles — and we simply didn’t do that in the first half,” Terry said, according to The Times.

“You can go anywhere in the world and not play well, but the least we expect from every player is that we work hard and fight. We didn’t do that today — the whole team collectively. That’s the most disappointing thing of all.

“All the other big sides in and around us have had emphatic wins, so it’s disappointing that we’ve thrown away three points. The manager has stressed that and the players feel that.

"You can’t come to places like this, when they’ve got their crowd right behind them, and not match their work ethic. We didn’t win our headers or our tackles and that’s simply not good enough. That’s the minimum we ask for.

“It’s a massive game at home again for us next week [against Liverpool] and it’s important that we bounce back on Wednesday night [away to APOEL].

"That’s probably the only good thing coming away from this game, that we’ve got another game on Wednesday. So we regroup, we go again and, hopefully, get a good win on Wednesday to put ourselves in a good position in the Champions League group.”

Chelsea lost both league matches against Liverpool last season — 1-0 at Stamford Bridge and 2-0 at Anfield — and are likely to go into Sunday's match at Stamford Bridge without first-team trio Peter Cech, Ashley Cole and John Obi Mikel.

Both Cole and Mikel suffered injuries at the DW Stadium, while Cech is suspended after being sent off for a professional foul on Hugo Rodallega in the penalty area. Henrique Hilario, the 33-year-old Portuguese, will deputise in goal