Chelsea

Chelsea's Kurt Zouma: 'It doesn't matter who plays in defence'

By Danielle Joynson, Staff Reporter | 21 September 2015

Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma says that it "doesn't matter who plays" in regard to Jose Mourinho's shuffling of John Terry in defence.

Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma has played down John Terry's first-team snub by insisting that it "doesn't matter who plays".

Manager Jose Mourinho has rotated the back line a few times this season, with Terry missing out on occasion.

The former England captain played every Premier League game in the team's 2014-15 title-winning campaign, but was dropped from the starting lineup in Saturday's 2-0 win over Arsenal.

Zouma was selected to partner Gary Cahill instead, and it proved to be a good decision from Mourinho as the Frenchman scored the opening goal in the 52nd minute at Stamford Bridge.

The victory was the first of the season at home for Chelsea and just the second in six top-flight fixtures.

"We don't have pressure in the dressing room," Zouma told the club's official website. "We know who we are and we just had some bad results since the beginning of the season, but now we showed who we really are and what we can do. The boss said before the game, 'forget the table - play the game to win and to show them that they are going to lose'.

"[The rotation at the back is] good for us because we have good defenders. I can play, John Terry can play, Gaz did well as well. So now we just have to recover our defensive organisation from last year. It doesn't matter who plays, we have to just keep going and keep clean sheets."

Terry will reportedly be named among a handful of fringe players in this week's Capital One Cup tie against Walsall.