Cahill backs Terry to shine for Chelsea

Gary Cahill hopes that fellow Chelsea defender John Terry can put his summer of off-field problems behind him.

The Champions League winners’ captain was cleared of a racially aggravated public order offence over his confrontation with Anton Ferdinand against QPR in October 2011.

Terry lost the England captaincy for the second time over the allegations, which also led to the resignation of Fabio Capello as national manager.

“When he comes back from holiday all of this will be put behind him,” Cahill told reporters from Chelsea’s Seattle pre-season base.

“I don’t think this will affect him in any way.

“John has gone through loads of stuff in his career but, the character he is, he just seems to steamroller over it all and motor on.

“John was one of England’s best players at the Euros this summer. The defence looked really solid. They did really well.”

Despite winning both the FA Cup and Champions League in his first couple of months at Stamford Bridge, the former Bolton defender urged his team-mates to show more consistency in the Premier League this season.

“We could have competed in the league better,” Cahill said.

“That will certainly be the aim. The obvious problem was consistency, there were some dodgy results.

“It is a question of ironing those problems out. We know we have the players to compete.”