John Terry Explains Why His Old Chelsea Team Could Smash Pep Guardiola's Man City

Former Chelsea captain John Terry has admitted that Manchester City have the best squad in the Premier League right now, but backed his Blues sides of 2004/05 and 2005/06 to give them a run for their money. 

Speaking on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football, the Aston Villa skipper backed Jose Mourinho's teams of the mid-2000s to beat City - who are unbeaten in the Premier League this season and on a record winning streak. 

Asked if there were any squads who could compete with Pep Guardiola's side, he said: "I would say 2004/05 or 2005/06, those first two sides when Mourinho arrived at the club."

When quizzed on whether he would expect to win a game between the two teams, he said: "Yes, yes. We were never afraid to say: 'They'll have more possession than us,' but we were set, comfortable. The full-backs [William Gallas and Paulo Ferreira] would always go up the pitch, and [Claude] Makelele would always sit, which was great for us centre-backs.

"But we had great legs, great power, and we had the big man up front. Didier [Drogba] made such a difference. We had that ball into Didier, and he could hold it up, with the runners off him [Damien Duff and Arjen Robben] and [Frank] Lampard would be box-to-box game after game."

He did concede that Chelsea would struggle to get away with as much physical 'bullying' of opponents now, adding: "Probably not as much nowadays, you certainly wouldn't get away with as much, but also I'm not sure you'd get near some of them now, the pace of Sane, De Bruyne, Sterling as well, blimey.

"The way the game is going and has gone, everyone has so much pace and power. As a Chelsea side we felt we could go and bully most sides, but I think these can compete with the physical side of it, and they have something different going forward."