John Terry has rejected claims that Chelsea have gone backwards in the last 12 months.
The England defender admits the highs of last season have been hard to match. But a point against Manchester United at Stamford Bridge tomorrow will clinch back-to-back titles for the Blues.
Terry said: "The standards we set ourselves were awesome last year and coming into this season and the Christmas period we were playing really well.
"Even when we weren't playing really well we were grinding out results and getting a few points. We had a couple of slips and everyone jumped on the bandwagon to say we weren't playing as well as last season.
"But once again we're in a great position to win the Premiership for the second year running.
Defeat to Liverpool in last week's FA Cup semi-final dashed Chelsea's hopes of their first double.
It prompted Jose Mourinho to admit his team had not made progress despite spending more than £50million on Shaun Wright-Phillips, Michael Essien and Asier del Horno.
Terry said: "Other teams are closing the gap and it's going to get tougher each year. We've improved but other teams behind have strengthened and improved.
"I'm sure at the end of this season, other teams will strengthen again, we'll strengthen again and everyone will try to catch us again. First things first, we must get it wrapped up tomorrow but if we win the Premiership again we will see it as a very successful season."
