Rafa Benitez pleased by Chelsea improvements

Chelsea interim boss Rafa Benitez has indicated he is happy with the direction the team are going, and praised the teams confident win over Sunderland.

Rafa won his first Premier League game with Chelsea this weekend, following on from Wednesday’s 6-1 Champions League win over FC Nordsjaelland.

Chelsea put in an all round good performance, with Fernando Torres continuing his goalscoring form from Wednesday. Fernando has now scored a brace in both of his last 2 games and Rafa has taken the credit for that.

Rafa refused to put the Spanish striker on a pedestal by praising his team as a whole, saying: “The confidence of the team will be fantastic because we have not just won our last two games, but we have won them well too.

“We are looking to keep the balance of the team good, and I think we did that against Sunderland.

“We are playing our football high up the pitch, and that is improving our chance to score goals.”

“I was not thinking too much about me getting my first Premier League win, or even getting a win midweek in the Champions League, which was was my first Chelsea win.

“It is about the team going in the right direction, and I’m pleased that we are doing that.

“The media will concentrate on Fernando Torres getting another two goals, and I understand that, but although he played well, I thought it was a great team performance generally.”

It was an all round good performance, but Sunderland we’re pressuring us in spells, and without the penalty on the stroke of half-time, the game could well of played out differently.

We definitely deserved to win, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not so confident we’re over the hill just yet…