Benitez feels improvement despite hostilities

Chelsea boss Rafa Benitez has claimed his team has improved under his guidance, despite the hostile reception he continues to receive at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues have been in better form away from home of late, and one reason for this could be the Benitez effect, with many Chelsea fans opposed to the current manager in charge.

Rafa was hired in November despite Chelsea’s Supporters Group warning Roman Abramovich that Benitez would not be welcome at Stamford Bridge. The Spanish manager made some enemies at the Bridge whilst managing Liverpool and the Blues fans have not forgiven or forgotten.

Benitez’s side won 4-0 away at Stoke yesterday, following 2 losses in their previous 3 games, prompting the Spaniard to speak out bout the clubs current form.

“The team is doing well, the players are happy,” said the interim boss. “The players are training really well and you can see that they’re trying to perform. All the staff are doing a great job so the atmosphere in the side is really good.”

He added: “When we play the games we cannot control what’s going on outside the pitch but we’ll try to do our best on the pitch and hopefully it will be easier.

“We cannot every week be thinking crisis, not crisis. We’re scoring more goals than in the past, we’re conceding half of the goals that the team has conceded in the past. That means we have more balance and that is the way to sustain the performance of the team at this level.”

Our Chelsea team has not been consistent under Benitez, and have lacked fluency against teams we should be rolling over. Rafa is clearly struggling to keep our side concentrated on the job, with losses in the World Club Cup final, as well as our most recent losses to QPR and Swansea City.

Fernando Torres has continued to be a burden on our side, having failed to score since Eden Hazard gifted Torres a late tap-in against Aston Villa before Christmas.

Roman’s main reason for hiring the Spaniard was to bring the best out of the £50Million striker, and has so far failed in that respect.

Rumours sounding out from Stamford Bridge suggest Jose Mourinho is currently the most likely option to replace Benitez at the end of the season, with reports from Spain suggesting Benitez is a front-runner to take Jose’s job.

Real Madrid fans are said to be unhappy with the current management, as are Chelsea fans, so how about an early swap? Pretty please…