The 5 greatest captains in the Premier League era

#3 John Terry

Chelsea fans will always consider John Terry their "captain, leader, legend"

Despite playing at Aston Villa now, at every Chelsea home game, a large banner can be seen hanging from the rafters at Stamford Bridge that reads ‘John Terry – Captain, Leader, Legend’.

That essentially tells you all you need to know about how great of a captain Chelsea’s home-grown hero was – even if some unsavoury incidents off the field didn’t make him popular with fans of other sides.

In terms of statistics, you simply can’t argue with the greatness of Terry as a captain. He’s the only man to lead his side to five Premier League title triumphs, and he also led Chelsea to four FA Cups, three League Cups, the Champions League and the Europa League.

The Champions League victory was a controversial one as Terry was suspended for the final only to turn up for the celebrations in full kit, but only a fool would claim he hadn’t played a large part in getting the Blues to Munich.

In the first leg of the semi-final with Barcelona, in which Terry helped his side to keep a clean sheet against a dominant Barca side.

Perhaps his most telling contribution though came in his first season as captain – 2004/05. Selected as the leader by new manager Jose Mourinho, Terry led the Blues to a title win with the best defensive record in Premier League history, keeping the most clean sheets and accruing the highest points total too.

That season saw him voted the Player of the Year by his fellow professionals; one of the highest honours possible, and rare for a central defender – only the second defender to win the award in Premier League history.

It tells you how highly everyone rated Terry and despite his off-field reputation, it’s hard to deny his effectiveness as captain.