Despite being benched by his manager Jose Mourinho for plenty of games so far this season, Chelsea’s captain John Terry continues to defend the Portuguese coach as criticism has continued.

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With Mourinho’s actions off the pitch — fined for saying referees are “afraid” to give Chelsea decisions, lambasted for publicly hitting out at and then demoting a respected female club doctor who has since left the club and, well, for just generally being surly — causing plenty of attention, his team are struggling on the pitch as they sit in midtable nine games into the Premier League season with the reigning champs 10 points off Manchester City who sit in first.

Chelsea face a tricky trip across England’s capital this Saturday as they face West Ham United (Watch live, 10 a.m. ET on NBCSN and online via Live Extra) with Mourinho looking to close the gap on the Hammers who sit in fourth spot after a superb, albeit somewhat surprising, start to the season.

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With Chelsea only winning their third PL game of the season last Saturday against Aston Villa, 2-0, then drawing 0-0 away in Ukraine against Dynamo Kiev in UEFA Champions League play on Tuesday, Terry was restored to the starting lineup for both of those games which yielded back-to-back shutouts.

“The win at the weekend felt unbelievable in the dressing room afterwards,” Terry told Chelsea TV. “It had been a few weeks, but when they come about it was nice. We want that feeling week after week again, put ourselves on a run of games and that’s what we’re trying to do. We are a great side and we will get there with the hunger and the ambition that is in the squad. “You don’t win trophies year after year without that hunger in the belly. We are collectively together, the players, the manager and the fans and we will be all right. When the chips are down, I’d take this squad over any. I know the players very well. I’ve been in this situation before, I’ve seen it happen. We’ve got a great squad of players. More importantly we’ve still got the best manager in the world.”

So, despite Chelsea’s poor start to the season, is there anybody out there who believes the Blues will not finish in the top four at the end of the season?

And, is Terry right, is Mourinho still the best manager in the world? Think about the top coaches out there right now. It’s hard to thing of one with a better resume or more trophies with only Pep Guardiola or Carlo Ancelotti able to challenge him as the best coach on the planet.

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