Chelsea captain, John Terry, announced earlier this week that he will be ending his 21-years stay at the club.
Terry, 35, is the Blues most successful captain, having led them to four Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups and one UEFA Champions League.
The club’s decision not to extend his current contract gave room for the former England skipper’s decision to quit Stamford Bridge.
Here are five stats that show Chelsea could be making a big mistake by letting John Terry go:
- He’s made just one defensive error this season
This may come as a surprise to many Chelsea fans but stats they say don’t lie. Despite the Blues dismal title defence this season, John Terry has only made one error at the back.
And that came back in November during the 1-0 win at home over Norwich. By contrast Gary Cahill, Kurt Zouma and Branislav Ivanovic have all made two and – bar Cesar Azpilicueta – Terry remains the most consistent and reliable member of Chelsea’s back-line.
- He’s the Blues’ pass master
No Chelsea player can better Terry’s passing accuracy of 90% this season and that side of his game often goes a little bit under the radar.
Over the past few years, he has worked really hard on that side of his game and there are now few defenders in the world with better distribution than the former England captain.
- He’s part of Chelsea’s best centre-back partnership
Since interim manager Guus Hiddink took over – including the game against Sunderland – Zouma and Terry have started together in seven of the eight Premier League games, with Chelsea remaining unbeaten in all of them.
The Blues have lost nine Premier League games overall this season and just a third of those came with the aforementioned duo starting.
- He’s a threat in both boxes
Terry may only have one league goal this season but he is the Premier League’s record scoring defender with 40 goals.
Over the years, the 6ft 1in defender has scored some vital goals for the club and neither Zouma or Cahill have really shown they have the ability to inherit this.
Cahill has scored 15 goals during his time at Chelsea, in the same period Terry has scored 24, whilst Zouma’s tally since joining is just four.
- He’s a unique defender at Chelsea
In every great defensive partnership, there is usually a player who is better on the ball and one who is more defensively orientated – think Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, Terry and Ricardo Carvalho, Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny.
Terry has become one of the best ball-playing defenders and, on top of that, he is the great organiser on the field.
