Benitez confident Chelsea will improve

Rafael Benitez insists Chelsea will improve over time after his side were booed off following a dire goalless draw with Fulham on Wednesday.

Chelsea have drawn 0-0 in both matches since Benitez’s appointment as interim manager last week as replacement for club legend Roberto Di Matteo, much to the anger of the majority of the west London club’s supporters.

After Benitez was booed on Sunday when taking his place in the dugout, there was once again mutiny in the crowd as supporters sang ‘We want our Chelsea back’ and chanted Di Matteo’s name as the team’s poor run of form extended to just two wins from 10 games.

Benitez admitted he was disappointed with the result but claims he will get the side scoring goals and competing for trophies by the time his contract expires at the end of the season.

“The Premier League is a long, long competition,” said the Spaniard. “I think we can win the league, why not? The main thing is to win games. If we can win games, we will be up there and we will win competitions.

“The players are quite happy with what we are trying to do and it will be a question of time. If you don’t have time, you cannot manage.

“It’s not easy to judge after five training sessions and two matches. We need time to work on things. Two clean sheets is something positive but I want to score more goals and be more offensive.

“Everybody here was disappointed at the end. We have to give credit to Fulham for working very hard but these are the games we have to win.”

Benitez refused to criticise 50-million-pound striker Fernando Torres, with whom he worked so well at Liverpool, and believes he can rebuild the confidence of his compatriot – and the rest of the squad.

“Now it’s a question of coming back little by little. The main thing is keeping a solid team with good shape and then creating chances with the talent we have up front,” he said.

“It’s not a case of Fernando. They defended with a lot of bodies there and it wasn’t easy for him, Hazard, Oscar or anyone. You have to give credit to them and think about how we can improve a little in attack.”

Fulham counterpart Martin Jol, meanwhile, hailed the performance of Dimitar Berbatov although he was frustrated at his side’s inability to pick up all three points.

Jol admitted his game plan revolved around stopping the hosts imposing their style on the match, and while he was pleased with how his side dealt with Chelsea’s key men, he highlighted the performance of Berbatov.

“I thought Berbatov was fantastic. The way he linked the midfield was unbelievable,” Jol said.

“We wanted to frustrate them and keep a clean sheet. We know we are a difficult team to play against.

“I felt we handled their star players well. To go away from home and to keep a clean sheet is exactly what we wanted but we are frustrated not to win the game.”

Despite the fine performance it was the win that Jol ultimately wanted and, with Fulham only managing a draw, the Cottagers boss admitted to being dissatisfied with the result.

“It’s only one point and you need three points and that’s a little disappointing,” he said.

“We had three or four good possibilities. We could have nicked it. We wanted to frustrate them – it was their second game under Rafa and we wanted to take advantage of that.”