Mourinho explains decision to leave out Terry

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said the decision to drop John Terry and play Kurt Zouma in central defence in the 2-0 win over Arsenal was to combat the pace of Theo Walcott.

Zouma scored the opening goal in feisty game that saw the Gunners have both Gabriel and Santi Cazorla sent off, with Eden Hazard’s deflected strike sealing the victory in injury time.

Mourinho said there was no issue with his captain Terry, despite leaving him out for the last two games.

“We had to bring our defensive line-up,” Mourinho said. “And to play against Theo Walcott, the best player we have is Zouma, and John knows the way I think.

“John Terry doesn’t need me to speak with him because he knows what I feel and what I think.

“He knows he is my man and he knows that if I have to choose one out of 25 to be my man he is the first. He knows that I care about him about as a person and as a player.

“He knows my decision was to help my team to win the match because I thought that Arsenal were coming playing a defensive game with a fast striker that gets behind people.

“If we didn’t need to win the game so much we would probably have kept our block lower and more compact, but because we desperately needed a victory we couldn’t wait.”

And Mourinho had no doubt Chelsea merited their win – just their second in six league games this season.

“It was a good performance and we deserved the win,” Mourinho said. “The attacking players defended much better than before.

“We were confident and comfortable with the ball and played well with 10 men. We had security in behind and moved the ball well.”