Captain puts in another inspired display in pre-season after vigorous training sessions

OHN TE R RY l ove s to prove people wrong and the veteran defender is doing it again.

Three pre-season friendlies have come and gone and no outfield Chelsea player has had more minutes on the pitch. In fact, the only time Terry has spent on the bench was when he was substituted with a minute to go at RZ Pellets last week.

With the club’s opening Premier League game against West Ham less than three weeks away, it will now be a major surprise if coach Antonio Conte does not name the 35-year-old in the first XI.

Of course, this wasn’t in the script when the club performed a late U-turn in May and Terry was told he would be given a new deal.

The change of heart came with conditions, although the powers that be always insisted that they would wait until the end of the season to resolve his future.

Not only was he offered less money, the club warned their long-serving captain that he would have a different role — in other words, he couldn’t expect to be a regular any more.

With the club expecting to sign at least one high-profile defender, plus the return of t alented youngster Kurt Zouma from a serious knee injury and continued involvement of Gary Cahill, Terry was to be relegated down the pecking order.

Standard Sport reported how torn he was over agreeing to the terms being offered. On one hand it was not the news he wanted to hear, especially with greater riches to be found elsewhere in China and the Middle East.

On the other, it provided a huge incentive to make a point that his career at the highest level wasn’t coming to an end, while staying at the club he loves.

The latter thought in his mind won the day and he set out to show Conte, plus those in the boardroom, that he could lead the team as well as he has for more than a decade. Once again he did his own vigorous training sessions during the summer break and reported for duty earlier this month, already with a head start on the rest of the squad.

As he’s been able to accumulate a lot of minutes on the pitch, potential rivals for a berth have had to wait to show Conte what they can do.

Cahill’s first outing came against Liv- erpool last night due to a break post Euro 2016 and Zouma is unlikely to be be match fit at all until September.

Meanwhile, Chelsea have been frustrated in their attempts to buy a centrehalf. Juventus, Napoli and Roma have been asking for vast sums for Leonardo Bonucci, Kalidou Koulibaly and Kostas Manolas respectively. John Stones, the man they pursued in vain a year ago and is on their wish-list again now, is about to join Manchester City for £50m. So not for the first time, Chelsea are turning to Terry for inspiration and crucially he’s still making the same timely interventions.

Against Liverpool here in Pasadena, he was barking out instructions to all the Chelsea players and frustrating their opponents.

For example, Sadio Mane and Philippe Coutinho both had the door slammed shut by Terry just as they thought they were through on goal.

Whenever a Chelsea player was in trouble with the whistle-happy referee Baldomero Toledo, Terry quickly ran over to start the pleas for defence.

Not everything went smoothly. Some of the frailty which crept into his game last term was on show, too, like when Mane beat him for pace on one occasion and also capitalised on a sloppy under-