Chelsea vs Swansea: John Terry reveals the 'hurt' of seeing Manchester City lift the Premier League is driving him on this season

John Terry has revealed the “hurt” he feels when he see rival team lift the Premier League trophy, but says that he is determined to use that pain to help Chelsea lift a first league title for four years.

The Chelsea captain has been a lonely figure for the past two weeks by his own admission, as the majority of his team-mates departed the club temporarily for their respective international fixtures.

But with the Premier League now firmly back in focus, Terry is looking to help his side maintain their 100 per cent record – and become the only side to keep a perfect record intact – when they face second-placed Swansea on Saturday.

“No player should stand there when seeing another team succeed and not feel hurt,” Terry told the Evening Standard. “We came so close in the League last season, Liverpool probably feel the same.

“When you play all those games and just lose out at the end, it’s disappointing, it’s heart-breaking. This is what you work all season for, it’s what you live for. I want to win trophies, last year we didn’t. We’re not more determined because we always are but with the signings the owner made, we will go for it again.

“For me the hunger is there from not winning the league. We need to get back to winning the title. It has been four years since we last did it but I believe we have the squad to do it. We are so driven.”

While Terry has formed a sturdy partnership at the back alongside fellow Englishman Gary Cahill, he has had to adapt to new faces coming into the squad this season. It’s something that the former England skipper believes will give them the necessary squad depth to challenge Manchester City for their Premier League crown, and also admits it’s where they fell short last season.

“I think we have a bigger squad than last season and it is going to benefit us,” adds the 33-year-old. “The Champions League kicks in next week and then there is the Capital One Cup after that. It’s going to help us that we have a bigger squad. Manchester City benefited from having that last season and we will this time, too.”

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Terry, like most observers, has also been impressed by the ease of which Diego Costa has settled into the Premier League. The Brazil-born Spanish international joined the Blues in the summer after they triggered his £32m release clause at Atletico Madrid, and he is already on his way to repaying that money with four goals in his first three matches.

Costa is an injury concern heading into the match against the unbeaten Swans, but Terry remains hopeful that he will shake off a hamstring injury in time to face Garry Monk’s side.

He says: “We have started brightly. You always hope that your new signings come in and hit the ground running and our players have done that. Diego Costa has scored four goals and got off to a flyer. We are hoping he is available for the weekend against Swansea but he has made a good impact so far.”

Having put six goals past Everton in a thrilling 6-3 victory last time out, the Chelsea defence came under fire for continuously letting the Toffees back into the game before they finally put them away.

But Terry was very defensive in his protection over the back-four’s performance that day, and believes that the focus should be on their incredible goalscoring this season rather than whether they concede three goals in an all-out-attacking match.

“I know some people have been talking about that,” Terry says of the result at Goodison Park. “We went throughout last season not conceding many goals and probably not scoring enough. We go up to Everton and score six and concede three but everyone is talking about the defence rather than how good our attacking play was. Before that we had only let in one against Burnley.

“We are only three matches into the season and not had much chance through this period. I was the only defender in at training for much of the last two weeks. Everyone else was away on international duty. For me it’s nothing to get concerned about yet. If it (conceding too many goals) happens three or four weeks on the spin, then it is an issue and I’m sure the manager will take a look at it. There are no qualms or problems for me at all.

“People can look at it that way but I think more should be made of the fact we scored six goals at Everton and how well we played going forward.”

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While Terry has cut a somewhat lonely figure while the majority of his team-mates were away, it did offer him the chance to head to Canary Wharf to try his hand at being a city trader, with the money raised contributing to the BGC Charity Day.

Terry enjoyed himself on the day and was happy to be able to travel to the business district after being preoccupied with training for the past three years.

“I really enjoyed it — it was good to be there,” he admitted. “The last two or three years I have been asked to come down but I have not been able to because I was training. It was great to see what the traders do and help raise a lot of money for charity.”

But with the phone on the hook and the football boots back on, Terry will return to more familiar territory as he leads the Blues out at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon. It’s certain to be a testing encounter for Chelsea given Swansea’s impressive winning start to the season, but the skipper will be hoping a repeat performance of shock-and-awe attack witnessed at Goodison Park a fortnight ago. Just don’t mention the goals conceded column of the league table.

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