What a difference a central defender makes.
    Chelsea looks set to win everything it wants to this season and England may actually more than a figment of the British media's imagination next summer in South Africa thanks to the presence of one John Terry.
    Sunday the Emirates Stadium there was not that much difference between the Chelsea and Arsenal attacks although they are built differently. Chelsea finished and Arsenal didn't in large part because Terry has become the best center back in the game. He may not be as elegant as Franz Beckenbauer in Der Kaiser's best years but he spends the 90 minutes in exactly the right spot.
    Arsenal remains an elegant, but horribly incomplete side because Arsene Wenger will not -- or cannot -- understand that championships are built on being able to defend. Sunday's defeat, every bit as bad as the horrendous European Champions League humbling from Manchester United at the same stadium, virtually eliminates the Gunners from the title race.
    It also made Manchester United's pursuit of Chelsea that much more difficult and set the stage for another four-month, two horse EPL race with the other would-be's concerned with getting a top four finish. We've read that book before, I believe.
    When Wenger reviews the tapes -- if he can bear to relive the latest disaster -- he will not have any difficulty recognizing that it was often Terry' perfectly-timed tackle or header which destroyed another of his team's pretty moves. And the main thing now is that Terry is doing it without the sometimes rough edges that once characterized his game.
    How much of this is down to Carlo Ancelotti? Certainly the Italian manager knows a thing or two about defense: after all, the game he played all his life was built on the Italian premise that every team starts at the back and moves forward cautiously toward attack.
    Ancelotti, however, has not imposed a rigid defensive style on the EPL's best team. If anything, Chelsea plays with more freedom these days, liberated from the Jose Mourinho era and over whatever seemed to be the problem during the abortive Scolari regime. Guus Hiddink may have started the turn-around in his stand-in spell last year, but Ancelotti now looks like having a side with the skill and confidence to finally win a European trophy.
    Sure, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka are usually the killers up front, but it is the sublime confidence of Terry at the back which defines Chelsea this season. If he can carry that form with him to South Africa even the Brazilians may need to worry about an England challenge.
    Meanwhile, Stamford Bridge should be the place to be well into May.

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