Chelsea's John Terry says 'player power' talk is nonsense

Chelsea captain John Terry has dismissed claims that player power was to blame for the sacking of Andre Villas-Boas.

Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and former Blues boss Luiz Felipe Scolari have both been critical of the players at Stamford Bridge.

But Terry described their comments as "complete nonsense".

"We win and lose together at this club - we're all responsible for the results we have," he said.

"As for the senior players running this football club, that's nonsense. That's just the perception from outside. Roman [Abramovich] and the board make the decisions.

"People speculating from various different clubs or previous managers, that's complete nonsense," he added.

Villas-Boas was sacked following the 1-0 defeat by West Bromwich Albion this month.

Since then, under caretaker boss Roberto di Matteo, Chelsea have beaten Birmingham City in the FA Cup and Stoke in the Premier League.

Chelsea's next challenge is Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday, a game they go into trailing 3-1 from the first leg.

Terry said: "If you had said 10 years ago that [Di Matteo] and I would be sitting here with such a big night coming up tomorrow, we'd have probably laughed at you.

"But that's the reality. You won't find two other people who care more about the football club going into this game tomorrow. We represent Chelsea.

"We give that fiery atmosphere in the dressing room and take it on to the pitch and hope everyone feeds off that."

If Chelsea are to progress to the quarter-finals, they need to become only the fourth club to overturn a Champions League first-leg deficit of two goals or more.

The 31-year-old accepts the task is tough, but is hoping for a special evening at Stamford Bridge.

"If it all goes well, it could go down as one of the great nights of Chelsea's history," he said.

Terry made his first appearance since January in Saturday's 1-0 win over Stoke and is hoping he can help his side reach the last eight of the Champions League, a trophy evidently craved by owner Abramovich but which has so far eluded the Blues.

"We don't feel cursed. We've been unfortunate in previous big nights here [at Stamford Bridge]," said Terry.

"You need a quality team to go on and win this competition, allied with a bit of luck, which we've missed out on.

"But I know we've still got an abundance of quality here and the determination buzzing around that dressing room to make this happen."