Chelsea captain John Terry pleased with the added competition for places caused by arrivals of Fernando Torres and David Luiz

John Terry – Chelsea (Getty Images)

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Chelsea captain John Terry believes that the arrivals of Fernando Torres and David Luiz has not just improved the squad in terms of personnel, but has made the competition for places even greater, something he sees as a good thing.

Both players arrived on January deadline day, with Torres arriving for a British record £50 million from Liverpool, whilst Luiz arrived from Portuguese giants Benfica for £22m.

Speaking to the club’s official website, Terry spoke of the impact the two players have made to the Chelsea team: “The whole squad needed a little bit of competition and we definitely have that with David Luiz and Fernando [Torres] coming in.

“It’s definitely got people on their toes and fighting for their place again.

“When Nico [Anelka] comes in and plays as well as he did against Copenhagen, it causes a problem for the manager for the next game.

“Who does he drop? Or does he play all three of them? It’s a very good problem to have though.

“When we see them staying behind after training, Fernando and David Luiz, we are all out there doing extra training with them because we don’t want to miss anything.

“It’s great to have them in because they are two young lads who want to win trophies and want to learn and improve themselves.

“Because they stay out and do extra work, the defenders stay out and practice their passing and the strikers their shooting. It’s very good.”

The former England captain went on to speak about Luiz, a player who will be looking to be direct competition for Terry’s place, but the Chelsea youth product couldn’t have given the young Brazilian higher praise.

He continued: “He’s incredible. He can play in midfield, he can play at right-back, he can play at left-back as well, like he did for Benfica. He is very confident and assured of himself.”

Chelsea welcome league leaders Manchester United to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday evening and Terry believes that the fact that Sir Alex Ferguson’s men are confident could work in favour of the Blues.

Terry concluded: “We are very confident at home and the way they play might help us. I’m not sure how they are going to come at us but other teams that have come to the Bridge have sat back and we’ve found it hard to break them down.

“It’s just a case of winning the game. I don’t care how that comes about. We just have to be up for it.

“It is a must-win game for us and the fans are going to be up for it. If we can win, who knows, it could put a little bit of pressure on them and the teams around us.

“We’ve a game in hand over Tottenham as well and with them losing against Blackpool we could get three points and overtake them.’