The Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez has hit back at the claims from the Chelsea fans that he doesn’t know what he is doing by saying that the changes he made at half-time clearly showed that is not the case.

Chelsea were losing 1-0 in the match against Brentford in the fourth round of the FA Cup. This led to the angry chants from the Chelsea fans towards the interim manager Benitez. In response to the poor performance from the team in the first half, Benitez made the change by bringing in the Spaniard Juan Mata in place of the German Marko Marin.

This brought out the desired effect in the second half because Chelsea equalised after just 15 min through a goal from Oscar. However, they conceded once again in the second half through a penalty, and it looked like they were facing elimination from yet another cup competition this season. Fernando Torres, who has been criticised all season for his performances, came up with a goal in the 83rd minute that helped Chelsea take the game into a replay at Stamford Bridge. After the match, Benitez argued that his players made many mistakes, but he is happy that they have been able to recover in the second half.

“I guarantee that sending on Juan Mata and changing the game showed we do know what we are doing. It is a transition period at the club. They wanted a manager with experience and I will try to do my best. We didn’t do what we had talked about and made too many mistakes. We were giving the ball away in simple situations. If you don’t do well in the first minute of this kind of game the other team grow in confidence and it becomes more difficult,” said Benitez after the match.