John Terry available for Chelsea to face Arsenal

In a press conference today ahead of the match, Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo said that Terry would be available for selection after training yesterday, and would remain the team's captain in the wake of the FA's ruling that he would be banned and fined after being found guilty of racially abusing QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.

FA rules state that John Terry will have a two week period in which he can lodge an appeal, which is how he's available rather than being banned immediately. He almost certainly will appeal, delaying his suspension further, but honestly I don't care about anything that does or doesn't happen to him unless he's playing against Arsenal.

It's yet to be determined whether Terry will actually play or not - Di Matteo called Terry "a senior pro" with "plenty of experience" to deal with the situation in front of him, which leads me to believe he plans to start him, but with David Luiz and Gary Cahill there are certainly choices available to Di Matteo should he choose to go another direction.