Rafa expecting ‘great’ season to get even better despite injury worries
Cole limped off with a hamstring injury after only 20 minutes of Chelsea’s 1-0 victory over Manchester United while Cahill missed the match with a knee problem; and both players will be absent for two to three weeks as Chelsea chase FA Cup and Europa League trophies as well as Champions League qualification.
“I don’t think our squad is that big and the problem we have now is that Cahill will be out for another 15 days at least and Ashley the same,” Benitez said.
“But I am pleased with this performance. We are also in the top four so we are in a very good position. We are in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, the quarter-final of the Europa League. I think it’s a great season at the moment — and it could be even better.”
Benitez shrugged off criticism of his selection policy after making eight changes from Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat at Southampton at the weekend, which seemed to indicate he was prioritising trophies over a top-four finish.
“We don’t have to justify anything,” he said. “The priority for us to is to finish in the top four, this we know. But in a top club like this you have to approach every competition trying to win.
“When you have two games in 48 hours you have to manage the squad. We don’t have a large squad and we don’t have too many players in some positions. We had to manage it and I think we did it really well.”
Benitez reserved praise for goal-scorer Demba Ba and goalkeeper Petr Cech, who made a stunning save from Javier Hernandez to keep Chelsea ahead.
“It was one of the best goals of the season for sure; really good technique and really difficult. He’s a goodfinisher,” said the Spaniard
“It was a great save too. Credit to him and to the rest of the team. When you have a good keeper it’salways healthy. It was a great save and a great goal.”
Chelsea will now face Manchester City at Wembley in the semi-final with Benitez adding: “It cannot be more difficult eh? But if you want to win you have to play against the best.”
United manager Alex Ferguson, who left out Wayne Rooney claiming he had a minor groin injury, was frustrated at the way his defenceallowed Ba to hit the winning goal.
“We spoke about Demba Ba, with the players’ experience of playing against him when he played for Newcastle. He scored that exact type of goal against us a while back and we were caught napping. Their counter attack caused a few problems, especially with their players like Mata and Hazard. Fortunately we did not concede another goal but I couldn’t really see us scoring ourselves.
“We should have been four up at half-time in the previous game and today in the first half we were absolutely comfortable.
They did not really have a threat to us but the goal, as they always do, changed the game.”
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