John Terry has launched a full-scale attack on his Chelsea teammates after their disappointing performance in the weekend defeat at Wigan. Chelsea were so poor that not only did manager, Carlo Ancelotti, rip into them during and after the game, John Terry also jumped on board and said what he thought.

Chelsea are now making the same mistakes that have seen them give up their Premier League chances in recent years. The club have the annoying habit of being able to work themselves into some fantastic early season form and then throw it all away by not focusing in every single game.

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

“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 and it’s important that we bounce back on Wednesday night [away to Apoel, of Cyprus, in the Champions League]. 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 players have already said this season that they are feeling the pressure that is being put on them by the powers that be at the club. The facts are that the papers say Chelsea need to win either the Champions League or the Premier League this season for their manager and owner to be satisified.

Manchester United look as determined as ever and there are some very good sides dancing around in Europe so it will be tougher than ever before for the Blues.