Terry – First half cost us

Terry: Chelsea are destined to end the season empty-handed

John Terry admits a lacklustre opening 45 minutes proved to be Chelsea’s undoing against Manchester United.

The Blues arrived at Old Trafford on Sunday very much in the Premier League title hunt, but aware that any slip-up would virtually hand the crown to United.

That is precisely what they ended up doing, with Javier Hernandez opening the scoring inside 36 seconds to leave the Blues playing catch-up.

Nemanja Vidic added a second for the Red Devils before the interval, meaning a Frank Lampard reply in the second half counted for little.

Chelsea now sit six points behind Sir Alex Ferguson’s men with two games of the season remaining, meaning United need just a point to secure a record-breaking 19th top-flight title.

Disappointing

Terry is at a loss to explain why the Blues started so badly at Old Trafford, with Carlo Ancelotti’s side having travelled to the North West in high spirits and fully aware of what was required from them.

He told Chelsea TV: “We were fully prepared. It’s just one of those things. It’s a disappointing day.

“If you go back two months, we would have taken being in this position. We felt it was in our hands and we could come here and win the game, but sometimes you have to hold your hands up and first half we didn’t really deserve too much from the game. Second half, maybe we deserved a draw or something.

“We came here hoping and praying that we started well and the role was completely reversed because they got the early goal and that settled them.

“But first half we didn’t deserve anything from the game at all. In the second half we came out, we had nothing to lose and we dominated. It would have been interesting to get that second goal and get it back to level terms.”