Saturday 2 December 2017 07:13, UK
Rafael Benitez is expecting the reception to be "fine" when he returns to Stamford Bridge for the first time since his brief spell as Chelsea interim manager.
Benitez was brought in for six months in November 2012 to replace the popular Roberto di Matteo but despite finishing third in the Premier League and winning the Europa League, beating Benfica 2-1 in Amsterdam, the former Liverpool manager was never accepted by all the Chelsea fans.
Speaking ahead of Saturday's game between Chelsea and Newcastle, which is live on Sky Sports, the Spaniard said he was looking forward to being back at the Bridge.
"It's fine. I didn't know it was the first time," he said. "It's fine, hopefully it will be a great atmosphere, a great game and we can get three points.
"I think they [the Chelsea fans] will be fine, the normal fans that you could find in the streets were okay. The rivalry between Liverpool and Chelsea at this time changed things and the perceptions of some people, but the majority of the fans realised I was doing a professional job.
"We were finishing third when everyone wanted to qualify for the Champions League. We did it and we won the Europa League in the meantime and so I think the fans will be happy with that.
"It was a really positive time, I have a lot of friends there, the staff were really good, the players were fine, a lot of the fans were okay and so I think it was quite positive.
"I try to take the positives, that they realised that we were doing our job and we did it until the end and we achieved what they wanted and even more, so fine."
Benitez has not had a great record against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Asked if he was confident ahead of the trip to Chelsea, he said: "I would like to say yes, but they are a top side, it is quite difficult to go there and beat them but we went to Old Trafford and we had a lot of confidence and we can try to do the same.
"Watching the games that Chelsea have already played, they have very good players, they have a good manager so they have a lot of things that mean they will be there at the top of the table but hopefully we can do something and we can get some points."
Newcastle go into the game buoyed by their 2-2 at West Brom on Tuesday night when they came back from being 2-0 down, but having lost their previous four matches they remain in the bottom half of the table.
