Villas-Boas: Terry incident not a distraction for Chelsea
Chelsea boss insists fall-out from last weekend's defeat by QPR will not affect his captain on Saturday
André Villas-Boas insists John Terry is in the right frame of mind to play in Chelsea’s clash with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
The Blues captain has been hitting the headlines following allegations of a racist slur towards Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand during Chelsea’s defeat at Loftus Road last weekend.
But the Chelsea boss believes the fall-out from the incident has had no effect on the England centre-half ahead of the Stamford Bridge showdown against the Gunners.
“I see no reason why [Terry should be affected],” said Villas-Boas. “We decided not to take him to Everton based on the quality we have at centre-back. But he’s been excellent in training.
“I don’t think, for us, it has been a distraction. For us, it was important to go back to winning ways in the Carling Cup. We haven’t lost focus on the situation. I would say that it is all a big misunderstanding.
“We haven’t lost too much focus on the situation because there is nothing to lose focus on.”
The Blues were this week charged by The FA of failing to control their players during the loss to QPR after José Bosingwa was sent off – but Villas-Boas has moved to defend his team’s behaviour on the pitch.
“The charge of failing to control the players is very aggressive towards what happened,” he said. “My team is not aggressive, it’s not confrontational, it knows how to behave itself.
“We were never aggressive towards the referee – the referee’s decision is always well taken.”
