John Terry admits he still gets a kick out of hearing admiration from his manager.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho feels Terry produced one of his finest ever performances in Sunday's 0-0 draw at Arsenal which strengthened the west London clubs title chances.

After learning of Mourinho's words, centre-half Terry admitted it was a great thrill to receive such lavish praise from the 'Special One'.

"It (defending) is an art. Listen I totally respect him, he is a great manager, but from our point I am just delighted," said Terry of Mourinho.

"I got on the end of a lot of crosses and cleared a few. You can feel when things are going well and stuff and definitely during the game I felt it was.

"But to hear that from the likes of the manager, who stands there and assesses you day-in, day-out, is really nice. But I just have to keep on and keep going because it can go the other way.

"They are a really good side, especially going forward, so needed to be on it defensively, which we have been collectively.

"I just thought even in midfield, tracking back late on, you could see they were shattered a little bit, but everyone dug deep."