The Interim One 'Rafa Benitez' Gets No Support From Fans and Boss

For a man who had suffereed an afternoon of abuse from his own team’s fans, Rafa Benitez protested, maybe just a little too much, that his afternoon had been one to relish rather than endure.

‘Of course I’m smiling! Normally I am smiling. I’m really pleased with the performance of the team. We had a lot of attempts, played very good football, the atmosphere was good, so before you start asking about the fans and the reaction, I would say that I was pleased with the fans behind the team and the players played with more confidence.

It was a shrewd, albeit slightly forced, attempt to spike the guns before the inevitable questions arrived, and few could blame him. Having criticized the Chelsea fans for protesting against him, Benitez knows that the Premier League’s most destructive game of tit-for-tat shows no signs of ending.

If those fans hoped to remind Roman Abramovich of their opposition, however, they would have needed to shout considerably louder, as he clearly had more pressing matters to attend to. The belief of the fan who insisted solemnly on his way into the ground that the ‘club are in crisis’ appears not to be shared by the owner. 

Despite his claims about the atmosphere, Benitez had appeared on television hours before kick-off, explaining that the booing at Stamford Bridge was making the players feel ‘uncomfortable’.

Source