Chelsea legend John Terry has named the one player in Enzo Maresca’s current squad who is the ‘best in the world in his position’.
Some football pundits have tipped Chelsea to challenge for the Premier League title this season after the team’s huge improvements in 2024-25.
The Blues landed the Conference League title last term, returned to the Premier League top four and then won the Club World Cup this summer.
Chelsea have strengthened their squad ahead of the 2025-26 campaign, signing the likes of Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro, Liam Delap, Jorrel Hato, Estevao Willian, Dario Essugo, Mamadou Sarr and Kendry Paez.
Ahead of Chelsea’s Premier League opener against Crystal Palace on Sunday, Terry has claimed that Reece James is the best right-back on the planet.
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Chelsea captain James has struggled with injury problems in recent seasons but Terry is still a massive fan of the 25-year-old defender.
‘For Reece, concentrate on staying fit and having a fully-fit season for him is the most important thing,’ Terry told The Sun.
‘He can make such a difference. We’ve seen the quality. When Reece is at it, he is the world’s best right-back.
‘When you’ve picked up a couple of injuries like Reece has had, it’s difficult to really feel like you belong.
‘So when you start demanding from people around you, when you’re the one not playing, that’s also very difficult.
‘When you’re in the starting line-up week in, week out, it’s easy to command and run the dressing room — and the standards of the football club.’
James only made 12 Premier League starts last season, missing the first three games due to a red card suspension before picking up a hamstring issue.
The England international has made a total of 190 appearances for Chelsea to date.
Terry on Chelsea’s Premier League title hopes
Quizzed about Chelsea’s hopes of clinching the Premier League title in 2025-26, Terry added: ‘I really liked the honesty from the manager [last season] because the message is clear to the players. We’re not there yet.
‘If you’re the manager now coming into that dressing room and you’re going, ‘We’ve got a chance this year’, the players will think we’ve got a chance. This year I think his message will be different.
‘He was spot on because we were young, it was a little bit up and down last year. At the moment, we’re clearly building and moving in the right direction.
‘I’m not sitting here saying I want to wait five years to win another Premier League. We’ve got to go into it 100 per cent with the mindset of going, ‘Yes, we have to try to win the league this year’.
‘Without a shadow of a doubt. But there’s other big competitions as well.
‘You fight right to the end until it’s not possible. The Premier League was done last season, Liverpool were very good last year and rightly the winners. We have to compete for that again.’
