SOCCER!! Chelsea hope John Terry's return will lift Oscar's form against Everton

Hopes high that Oscar will emerge from flat period at Goodison Chelsea's John Terry will be back from a three-week injury absence to face Everton in the Premier League. Photog

raph: Michael Mayhew/Sportsphoto José Mourinho believes that Oscar is suffering from a blip in form related to the dreadful weather and the physicality of English football but he has backed him to recover in the Saturday lunchtime kick-off against Everton at Stamford Bridge. The Chelsea manager will recall the captain, John Terry, after a three-match absence and there is a timeliness about his return from a muscle pull, particularly as David Luiz has a minor groin problem and will not play. After beating Newcastle United in Terry's absence the team drew at West Bromwich Albion before losing at Manchester City in the FA Cup. Mourinho suggested that David Luiz will be fit for Wednesday's Champions League last-16 first-leg tie at Galatasaray, for which the January signings Nemanja Matic and Mohamed Salah are ineligible. Advertisement Oscar was a late substitute at City last Saturday and, since his fine performance in the FA Cup win over Stoke City on 26 January, when he scored the game's only goal, he has been a little flat. Mourinho did not start him in the Premier League fixture at City on 3 February, which Chelsea won. But he said Oscar would play against Everton and hopes he can return to form against a team that will not just park the bus. "Maybe in the last couple of matches Oscar was not the same because in the beginning of the season he was the best player of the team," Mourinho said. "In this moment he is not being a match-winner, he is not scoring goals but he is not playing bad, so no real problems. "To play at West Brom in the difficult conditions and in the way that the opponent also played, it was not the best game for Oscar to be in the top of his game. But he's a fantastic player, with all our trust and he plays [against Everton.] And hopefully he plays well because if the weather is like this [good] ... Stamford Bridge, a good team like Everton, a team that likes to play football like we do ... I believe he is fine. He's not naturally a physically strong man. He suffers with the accumulation of matches. He suffers with the difficult weather we had. And he's a kid. The talent is there all the time but the physical, top condition to express the quality he has is not always there. So we have to take care of him." Mourinho sought to make a point about what he feels has been the unfair portrayal of him as the bad guy during the war of words with Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, by saying nothing about anything that was not related to Chelsea. He refused to comment on the problems of Arsenal and City in the Champions League; Wayne Rooney's contract at Manchester United; Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea's loanee at Goodison Park; or even the Everton manager, Roberto Martínez. He was happier to talk about Terry's return. "It means a voice on the pitch... that can transmit what I need," he said. "He gives stability to the team."