22 April 2024 , 14:00
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John Terry believes the Chelsea side of 2004/05 and their record of conceding just 15 goals was as impressive as Arsenal's 'Invincibles' going the entire 2003/04 season unbeaten.
Terry is one of the latest inductees into the Premier League's Hall of Fame, ushered in alongside Manchester United great Andy Cole. A number of that iconic Gunners squad from two decades ago are also in the select group, including Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira and Terry's former Chelsea team-mate Ashley Cole.
In the interest of balance, it's important to note that there are a number of players from the Blues 2004/05 squad also in the Hall of Fame. Terry joins Didier Drogba, Petr Cech and Frank Lampard as part of the Chelsea players in the list of icons.
Unlike the Invincibles, Terry's Chelsea side of the following year did lose one game away at Manchester City, but the England ace cited the fact that Arsenal drew 12 games in their last title-winning season as the reason why the two achievements should be viewed the same.
"I'm going to upset a couple of people here, but I think that season was as good as the Invincibles season for Arsenal. They drew an awful lot of games,' Terry explained. "We only lost once, away to Man City, Paulo Ferreira gave away a penalty early on in the game and we should have come back and won the game.
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"When you look at the goals we conceded that year, we conceded against sides you wouldn't expect if I'm honest and that's no disrespect to them. Looking back today. That could have maybe been nine or 10 goals conceded.
"I don't think it's a record that's ever going to be beaten if I'm honest. I certainly hope it's not and I'm very proud of what we did defensively. That's what we were paid to do, keep the ball out the net. It obviously helped with players around me like Petr Cech, Ashley Cole and Ricky Carvalho, so I'm very thankful for that."
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Sir Alex Ferguson has previously echoed a similar sentiment to the one John Terry raised (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)Terry is not the first high-profile figure to mention the number of draws that the legendary Arsenal side picked up. Sir Alex Ferguson was once pressed for comment on what he thought of the Invincibles, to which he simply replied: "Too many draws."
The former Manchester United boss had quite a turbulent relationship with ex-Gunners manager Arsene Wenger, with the two engaging in verbal spats plenty of times during the intense rivalry between the two clubs in the late nineties and early noughties.
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