Captain John Terry admits this is the last chance for Chelsea's old guard to conquer Europe
It began with a statement that he would not be taking questions about England or the Football Association but then an Italian journalist went off-message to ask about Fabio Capello and John Terry could not help himself. A sideways look at the man from Chelsea's media department, a little nod to indicate he knew what he was doing, then he was leaning forward in his chair and delivering a eulogy that strayed very close to a public thank you.
This was the first time he had addressed the press since Capello resigned in protest at the FA's decision to remove Terry as England's captain. "Fabio backed me," he said. "That comes from a relationship with myself and him; the relationship we built up. I stood for him on the football pitch, and he stood up for me off the pitch. I respect that. I respect him as a man and for what he did for me. Complete respect. Both ways."
He left it there, which was probably good sense when Chelsea have the small matter of a Champions League tie coming up against a Napoli side that have clearly been taking enjoyment from the way, in the words of their manager, Walter Mazzarri, they are "growing accustomed to astounding people". Three-one behind from the first leg in Naples, it may need one of the great performances of the Roman Abramovich era if Chelsea are to make it into the last eight and the Champions League is not going to ease into the quarter-finals without an English representative for the first time since 1996.
The alternative is that the team Abramovich built to win the European Cup comes up short again, almost certainly to be dismantled in the summer. "I think so," Terry said, when asked if this was the last chance for the group of players who won the league under José Mourinho but have more hard-luck stories from Europe than they will care to remember.
Their season has been such an ordeal at times the tendency is to suspect the damage inflicted in the Stadio San Paolo may be irreparable. There is, after all, little history of teams recovering from a first-leg deficit of two goals or more in the Champions League. In total, there have been 44 occasions when it has been attempted, only three times successfully. Chelsea themselves have been in this position three times before in Europe, most recently the 2004 semi-final against Monaco, and not got through once. Add to that Napoli's defensive record in Serie A, with only 13 goals conceded in their 12 away fixtures, and it demonstrates the scale of Chelsea's task.
For all that, however, there was a detectable confidence as Terry sat alongside the interim manager, Roberto Di Matteo – for large parts, in truth, little more than a spare part at his own press conference – and did his level best to convince us that, despite everything that has happened, this was a team with authentic reasons to believe "it could be one of our greatest ever seasons".
These were the nights, he said, when Stamford Bridge tended to be at its best and he argued, with some justification, that it was barely conceivable to think the players Di Matteo had inherited from André Villas-Boas would be as vulnerable as they were in Italy. At that point, Terry explained, "confidence had been dented". He denied, once again, that Villas-Boas had been the victim of some kind of dressing-room mutiny – "That's just the perception from outside" – but it was noticeable there was no Capello-style eulogy about the former manager. "Unfortunately for us, we couldn't seem to buy a win [under Villas-Boas]," he said. "Then we change managers and we get two in a row. I don't know why that happens."
The important thing for Chelsea is that they have rediscovered the habit of winning, albeit against limited opponents (Birmingham City in the FA Cup and Stoke City, with a man sent off, in the league). The mood seemed noticeably lighter and, for all Napoli's qualities, it is clear Chelsea can take encouragement from Arsenal's 3-0 defeat of Milan last week and, in particular, the speed at which a game can change when there is an early goal.
"Getting off to a good start must be key," Terry said. "Arsenal could have done it [overturn a 4-0 first-leg deficit], with that [Robin] van Persie chance late on. The start will be important for us, coming out of the blocks firing, getting the fans ready and making ourselves believe."
On the flipside, what happened to Milan at the Emirates – and more precisely, what almost happened – serves as a reminder for Napoli, too. As their leading scorer, Edinson Cavani, put it: "We saw in that game that a team of champions can change a match in five minutes."
At this stage of the competition last season, with Chelsea enduring another difficult period, Terry used the press conference before a tie in Copenhagen to say it was time the players started to "man up and take responsibility." This time, he said, "we know what we need to do. And if it all goes well, it could go down as one of the great nights in Chelsea's history."