John Terry has insisted he and his Chelsea team-mates will continue to put pressure on referees despite admitting: "It does not look good at all." And captain Terry has taken a swipe at former Liverpool greats Graeme Souness and Jamie Carragher over their criticism of Chelsea's antics in their Champions League elimination against Paris Saint-Germain.
Souness labelled Chelsea players "pathetic" for their reaction to the Zlatan Ibrahimovic challenge on Oscar that got the striker sent off in the first half.
Nine Chelsea players, including Terry, ran to referee Bjorn Kuipers before he sent Ibrahimovic off and Carragher claimed that the "dirty tricks" of Jose Mourinho's team were "disgraceful."
Asked whether the criticism of Souness and Carragher was unfair, Terry said: "From them? Yeah. I don't want to get involved in a row, but as a group it's difficult. It's there and you have to stick up for your team-mates. The fans want to see that and that's the same with every side.
"Every other side is as bad as each other. It's part of the game. Once they're charging the ref, the only thing we can do is respond. You can't as a group of players let them surround the ref, trying to get our players booked.
"For me, if I have to run 20, 30 yards, it doesn't look great but when you're standing back and seeing five or six of their players surrounding the ref, for me I think I support my team-mates."
Mourinho has called a team meeting today to analyse how Chelsea twice threw away the lead against 10-man PSG to be knocked out on the away goals rule.
Terry insists Champions League disappointment will only make the club even more determined to win the Premier League title, but has warned that anything other than three points against Southampton at Stamford Bridge on Sunday could be just as damaging as the PSG result.
"Now it's the Premier League," said Terry. "We've got the Capital One Cup out of the way, that's in the pocket, and the Premier League is all we've got not so it's a massive one to go for.
"We're a few points clear and we need to keep that gap and maintain it. We can only do that by responding and coming back here and picking up three points.
"The manager said that if we can win the Capital One Cup and the Premier League, it will be a very successful year. We're still a few points clear and there is an awful lot to do, but it's in our hands and we have to respond.
"As a group of players, there's enough experience in the squad to rally round and get everyone going again. Games come thick and fast and you can't keep down because Southampton will come here on the front foot, playing well and if we're not at it we'll drop points and we'll slip away in the Premier League."