• Premier League

Benitez: Chelsea job easier than Liverpool

ESPN staff
November 23, 2012

Rafael Benitez believes the Chelsea job will be a breeze compared with the challenge he faced during his tenure at Liverpool.

Benitez, who was unveiled on Thursday as owner Roman Abramovich's ninth manager in as many years, is confident the Russian will be easier to deal with than the Reds' former owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr.

Benitez, who endured more than three years under the American duo at Anfield, is confident Abramovich will not interfere as he bids to get Chelsea back to winning ways following a poor run of form that saw Roberto Di Matteo relieved of his duties.

"You saw how we were performing at Liverpool even with all these problems," Benitez said. "Here you don't have two owners who aren't talking to each other. You have an owner, a technical director and good staff, so for me maybe it's easier. It was a difficult time.

"If you have two bosses who do not even talk, it is difficult. You say you want a striker and one of them says they don't know, and the other says [something else]. This will be easier.

"Hopefully I will see the owner and talk about things. The information I have from different people is that he likes to see his team playing good football, but he is not involved every day, telling the manager to do this or that. I will take my responsibility and try to do well."

Benitez met his new squad for the first time on Thursday ahead of what will be a baptism of fire as Chelsea host champions Manchester City this weekend.

He said: "My experience is that I went to the training session, everything was fine, the players trained really well. The intensity was there, talking about ideas and tactics. I didn't see any problems at all. Hopefully it will be the same as this."

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