John Terry has claimed that his Chelsea side’s feat of conceding only 15 goals in the 2004-05 season was just as impressive as when Arsenal went a whole campaign unbeaten the previous year.
Terry was voted into the Premier League Hall of Fame on Monday, alongside Manchester United legend Andy Cole, where he joins former team-mate Ashley Cole for inductees in 2024.
In fact, he also finds a number of the Gunners’ Invincible icons in the shape of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira, Arsene Wenger and of course Cole, who swapped north London for the west of the city not long after.
Likewise, Frank Lampard Petr Cech and Didier Drogba have also received the Premier League’s highest individual honour, meaning that both sides of the debate are well represented after two of undoubtedly the most impressive feats in the competition’s history.
While Chelsea did lose once in 2004-05, away to Manchester City, Arsenal did concede 11 more goals, and Terry believes that the two achievements deserve to be held on the same pedestal in the annals of Premier League history.
‘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,’ he claimed.
‘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.
‘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.’
Terry’s side broke a number of records that season, including most wins (29), fewest conceded (15), most away wins (15), fewest away goals conceded (nine), and most clean sheets (25).
Jose Mourinho’s arrival at the start of the campaign prompted a huge influx of new players, including Portuguese duo Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira for £33.1million, following the boss from Porto.
The result was instant and Chelsea earned their first league title in 50 years, and their first in the Premier League era, finishing on 95 points, some 12 clear of the Gunners in second place.
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