It is nights such as this that set John Terry apart. He rose above the backache, he rose above the Roma defence and, as a result, Chelsea have risen above their Champions League group opponents by three points to take pole position at the halfway stage.

It might not have been that way. Remove Terry’s contribution and perhaps Chelsea would be viewing the coming weeks with trepidation. Had they dropped points at Stamford Bridge last night, qualification would have been perilously open, with all four teams in group A in with a shout and Chelsea facing two of their final three matches away from home.

This competition has not always been kind to Terry and nothing less than lifting the trophy itself will ease the pain of his penalty miss against Manchester United in Moscow, but this is a fresh campaign and Luiz Felipe Scolari and his players already have their captain to thank for allowing them breathing space going into the return match in Rome next month. His will to win, and his determination not to lose, carried the game.

It was not just his 78th-minute goal that separated the teams, but a staunch defensive display, standing firm against the quick wit of Francesco Totti and the counterattacking danger of a Roma team who came to West London to do a typically Italian job by claiming a point and came devilishly close to executing the plan to perfection.

Chelsea did not beat Roma in open play, Terry’s winning goal coming from a corner by Frank Lampard, and in the first half it was much the same. Roma were vulnerable only once the action had been suspended, from Lampard’s set-pieces rather than the invention of Deco, who was denied space and had a quiet game on his return to the starting line-up after a month out with injury.

And if Chelsea would certainly not have won without Terry, a more worrying thought is that, perhaps, they would have lost. Scolari has been predicting a game such as this for some time, a moment when the beautiful football would not be enough. Both through Chelsea’s fatigue and the solid organisation of the opposition, a blip had to happen sooner or later and, suddenly, here it was. Chelsea were poor, Roma were resilient and the game was drifting towards two points shared when Terry arrived to score his first club goal in almost a year.

Lampard took an inswinging corner from the left and Terry got there first, steering his header past Doni, the Roma goalkeeper, at the near post, stumbling as he landed and sitting upright on the turf as home supporters alternated between celebration and the fear that the captain had further aggravated his injured back.

He may pay for it this morning, although Scolari claims he has been pain-free of late, but as he rose gingerly and resumed his position at the heart of defence, it appeared that he was merely making sure everything was where it should be and accepting the congratulations of his team-mates in repose.

He deserved it. This was one of those nights that serve as a reminder of what an inspirational player Terry can be and it is no coincidence that three of the greatest managers of the modern age, José Mourinho, Scolari and Fabio Capello, have made him their captain. Rio Ferdinand did an excellent job in his absence with England last week, but nobody conveys that very English form of inspiration quite like Terry. Scolari may be Brazilian by birth, but he is a football man at heart and football men love leaders in the lionheart mould.

Arsène Wenger never once considered removing Tony Adams as the Arsenal captain and Terry has played the full 90 minutes of every game under Scolari, bar the final 13 minutes against Manchester City after he was shown a red card. On Scolari’s first day in the job, Terry introduced himself by name. Scolari’s response was to assure the captain he knew who he was and what he could do.

In essence, he knew about nights such as this, when Chelsea would labour and all that would dig them out of a hole is a captain who makes it his mission not to finish on the losing, or failing, side. He did it against Barcelona in Mourinho’s first season, scoring the winner, and the game against Valencia that turned Avram Grant’s time around also took on the form of Terry against the rest late in the second half. Now it is Scolari’s turn to benefit.

It was not that Chelsea lacked ambition, more that they failed to attain the heights of recent weeks, and Roma came to Stamford Bridge with a plan. This has been a poor season for Luciano Spalletti’s side so far, but any hope that Roma would be brushed aside as effortlessly, if not as spectacularly, as they have been by Manchester United in recent seasons soon evaporated. The Italians were level at half-time and while Chelsea had the bulk of scoring chances, Roma caused a big scare after 35 minutes when a moment of inspiration from Totti showed why they cannot be casually dismissed in the return leg.

Totti has been Roma’s talisman for more than a decade now and, deployed as a lone striker, he was still the man who Chelsea had to watch, dropping into space in midfield and creating room for Matteo Brighi, bursting through from deep. He played a lovely pass to Brighi just before half-time and, suddenly, space opened up in Chelsea’s back line. It took a quite superb tackle by Terry to divert Brighi’s shot for a corner at the last moment.

Much of the rest of it was somewhere between ho and hum. There was early promise when a cross from Wayne Bridge was blocked and Lampard had time to tee the ball up before hitting a dipping shot that Doni dealt with efficiently. After that, though, Roma sharply closed down Chelsea’s midfield and space was at a premium.

Chelsea’s best early chance came from a dead ball after John Obi Mikel had been tripped by Philippe Mexès, the Roma defender. Deco rolled the free kick to Lampard, whose shot skimmed the top of Doni’s bar. Soon after, Salomon Kalou cut inside on the right to force a save from Doni with a low shot and in the second half a free kick from Lampard was headed to Doni’s left by Kalou, only for the goalkeeper to be equal again. But these were slim pickings by Chelsea’s standards. Roma looked the more dangerous team on the break and what appeared an easy group may still turn nasty if Chelsea slip up in Rome.

Chelsea (4-1-4-1): P Cech — J Bosingwa, R Carvalho, J Terry, W Bridge — J O Mikel — S Kalou (sub: F Di Santo, 77min), Deco, F Lampard, F Malouda (sub: J Belletti, 46) — N Anelka (sub: P Ferreira, 90). Substitutes not used: C Cudicini, B Ivanovic, Alex, M Stoch. Booked: Malouda, Terry.

Roma (4-2-3-1): Doni — Cicinho, P Mexès, C Panucci, J A Riise (sub: M Tonetto, 81) — D De Rossi, M Brighi — R Taddei (sub: J Menez, 80), A Aquilani (sub: S Perrotta, 60), M Vucinic — F Totti. Substitutes not used: Artur, S Loria, V Montella, S Okaka Chuka. Booked: Mexès.

Referee: K Vassaras (Greece).