Chelsea are playing better football under me: Benitez

Rafael Benitez believes Chelsea have improved under his stewardship after watching his side hammer Stoke 4-0 at the Britannia Stadium.
The Spaniard was feeling the heat from fans again after back-to-back home defeats – in the Premier League against bottom side QPR and in the Capital One Cup semi-final first leg against Swansea on Wednesday.
Benitez is still not accepted by many of the Chelsea fans following the unpopular sacking of Roberto Di Matteo in November, but he insists the side is in rude health.
“The team is doing well, the players are happy,” said the interim manager.
“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.
“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.”
Stoke more than matched Chelsea during the first half and it looked like they would reach half-time all square until Jonathan Walters powered a header into his own net in injury time.
It was the striker’s 100th Premier League appearance but it was emphatically not his day.
In the 62nd minute he repeated the trick with another header past Asmir Begovic, and Chelsea made it three goals in 11 minutes through a penalty from Frank Lampard – who is now within eight goals of Bobby Tambling’s club record – and a long-range strike from Eden Hazard.
To cap off Walters’ nightmare day he missed a penalty in injury time after being felled by John Terry, who made his first appearance since suffering a knee injury two months ago as a 79th-minute substitute.
The result marked the end of Stoke’s long unbeaten Premier League run at the Britannia Stadium, which stretched back to February, and Benitez praised the way his players handled the occasion.
He said: “I thought it was a difficult game, especially in the first half. We knew it would be tough, Tony Pulis is doing a great job so we knew it could be physical and intense, and we were ready for that.
“The (first) goal changed things a little bit because they had to go forward, they left more space. My players showed great character and quality at the same time.
“We tried to explain to some of the players who didn’t know what they could find here. We analysed what we had to do and their response was really good.”
Benitez again stuck with one up front, but this time opted for Demba Ba over Fernando Torres, with the Spaniard having to make do with 20 minutes as a substitute.
“I think it’s important to have these two good players available,” said Benitez. “We’re doing well with one up front but we can use both if it’s necessary.”
Stoke manager Pulis felt the scoreline was harsh on his side and was unhappy with referee Andre Marriner’s decision to award a penalty to Chelsea after Robert Huth was deemed to have fouled Juan Mata. It was Stoke’s worst home defeat since their promotion to the Premier League in 2008, and Pulis said: “We’re disappointed. Obviously the second goal kills us.
“The goals that we conceded were poor. I’m really disappointed with the penalty as well. I know Robert’s got his hand on his shoulder but Mata’s legs just collapse and I think it’s soft.
“I don’t think that was a 4-0. It’s very hard to take because I don’t think the lads deserve to be on the back of a 4-0 defeat for that performance.”