CHELSEA FOOTBALL FANS

Movie Ranking: 4 / 5

Video clip Score: 4 / 5

Online video Rating: four / five

Since the day of arrival at Chelsea, the interim manager Rafa Benitez has been treated with lot of abuse from the Chelsea fans. They have made it extremely clear that he is not welcome at the club after abusing them a lot when he was the manager of Liverpool. Results have certainly not helped Benitez win the fans over. He has been responsible for Chelsea being knocked out of the two major competitions like the League Cup and the FIFA club World Cup. They also out of the contention to win the league title as well.

After a brief absence from a spell of hostility, the Chelsea manager found himself in the firing line once again after the disappointing 2-2 draw with Brentford in the fourth round of the FA Cup. The team came extremely close to being knocked out of the competition from a club playing in the third division of English football. In the end, only Fernando Torres goal late in the match helped the manager to take the game into a replay that will take place at Stamford Bridge. Benitez said after the match that he is not concerned that by the abuse from the Chelsea fans. Instead, he is focusing on improving the team and their performance.

“I have said before that I am just concentrating on my job. I try to stay really focused and I can guarantee Juan Mata changed the game when he came on. The club said they wanted a manager with experience and I will try to do my job. In the first half we didn’t do what we had to do. We made too many mistakes, but I was really pleased with the reaction of the team after that. We showed quality and character. It was very, very clear but it is also very, very clear we didn’t perform in the first half,” said Benitez.

Video clip Rating: four / 5

Chelsea should not be expecting any miracles from him according to the interim manager Rafa Benitez. The Spaniard was appointed as the replacement for Roberto di Matteo a few weeks back. He has managed to help the club regain the form in recent weeks, while he has also managed to get the best out of the Spaniard Fernando Torres. Even though the club lost in the final of the Club World Cup, the resurgence in the Rafa Benitez has been extremely good. The club has not only been sound defensively, but they have also managed to score many goals as well.

The recent 1-0 defeat at the hands of QPR may have ruled him out of the title race, but Chelsea still remain in contention for three more trophies. They are the semi-final of the League cup, while they have progressed to the next round of the Europa league and the FA Cup. Despite this, there is a feeling that Benitez is just keeping the seat warm for the former Barcelona manager Guardiola, who has always been the first preference of the owner Roman Abramovich. Guardiola, though, is currently on sabbatical and is only expected to return to management in the summer. Benitez, though, has said that fans should not be expecting miracles from him.

“This year you can see is a year of transition. Some new players are coming in, so it’s ­different. I don’t need to convince anybody of that. You can see that new players have come in and some players are ­getting older, it’s normal. We have enough intelligence to analyse this and work with it. When you’re not close to your ­target, which is ­winning the title, it’s easy for players to lose focus,” said Benitez, whose Chelsea team are 14 points behind United in the table.

Video Ranking: four / five

The Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez has said that he feels that the team is in need of a rest, as the players have been extremely poor in recent weeks due to the huge number of matches. Due to their involvement in a number of competitions following their Champions League victory last season, Chelsea have already played a lot of matches. The players like Fernando Torres and Eden Hazard have been virtually playing every match for Chelsea since the start of the season, which has taken the boil out of them. The new manager Rafa Benitez took charge of the club only a week ago and he has already seen the club play two matches in the space of three days.

They will be set for another match this weekend when they take on West Ham at Upton Park. He has said that the piled up fixture list means that the players do not have an opportunity to be at peak fitness. Benitez also has said that the fewer players within the squad means that rotation is also extremely difficult. He suggested that the club may dip into the January transfer window in order to bolster their squad. The injuries to Lampard, John Terry, and Marko Marin have certainly not helped the situation.

“We had too many players playing almost every game. Eleven or 12 were playing in every game and others hadn’t had too many minutes. You cannot play two or three games in eight days and be fully fit. You lose some pace and energy. We will manage the squad, particularly with Japan and the games over Christmas. We will be stronger as a team if we juggle them,” said Benitez ahead of the West Ham match. Chelsea also have to play in the Club World Cup championship in December.

Video Ranking: four / five

Video Rating: 4 / five