Under-fire Benitez blames poor defending and missed chances

Under-fire interim manager Rafael Benitez blamed missed chances and poor defending for Chelsea’s failure to beat Southampton.

The Blues were 2-0 up and in control at Stamford Bridge before the visitors hit back with goals from Rickie Lambert and Jason Puncheon.

It prompted another angry reaction from fans towards Benitez, who admitted: “We had to defend as a unit a little bit better, especially when we were winning.

“At the start of the second half we didn’t manage the game and didn’t have the control we were expecting.”

The disappointing result was another slip-up by the Blues, who recently suffered back-to-back home losses against QPR and Swansea.

After those defeats Benitez suggested the problem was that visiting sides were defending in numbers, while his team were not taking their chances.

And he insisted that was again the case despite Chelsea scoring twice in the first half and seemingly being in total command.

“We didn’t take our chances and gave them hope they would score – and they did it,” said Benitez.

“We had chances again. I said before that we had to be more clinical and today was exactly the same. We didn’t take the chances we had.

“As soon as we scored the goals it was fine. After that, we needed to take our chances and put them under pressure.”

Follow West London Sport on Twitter
Find us on Facebook