Rafa Benitez needs to make a good impression as soon as possible, but going by the way his Chelsea side have played in the last two games, it will not come along too easily or quickly.
The Blues played out another boring 0-0 draw, this time against Fulham, as the Stamford Bridge faithful gave their new manager another frosty reception.
Chelsea kept a second straight clean sheet, but their inability to create chances going forward was telling against a Fulham side that have conceded 23 goals in 13 games, and were without their inspirational captain Brede Hangeland. The draw meant Chelsea are now seven points behind leaders Manchester United.
"I think we had around 17 attempts and a lot blocked," Benitez said. "You can't control this if the other team has too many behind the ball. You try, you try, but it's part of the situation you will see in Stamford Bridge.
"The main thing is to put them under pressure and hopefully in the future we can play these passes in the final third more precise and we will have more chances.
"Everybody here is disappointed at the end so we have to give credit to Fulham who worked very hard but these are the games you have to win and cannot lose. We controlled the majority of the game -- they had two chances on counter-attack.
"We have to improve this and we have to score goals, but they worked hard in defence with a lot of bodies behind the ball and it's not easy.
"We have a solid team with a good shape, and we will create the chances we have to with the talent we have upfront but if you don't link with them quickly the defenders have time to reorganise quickly and it's more difficult."
Fulham's John Arne Riise had the two best chances in the game, but despite that Benitez insisted his side deserved a win. "I think so, especially second half, we had our chances against a team that was well organised and had plenty of players behind the ball," he said. "They had two chances, we made mistakes to stop the counter attack, but we were on top of them."
Benitez decided to leave out Juan Mata out of the starting lineup - the Spaniard has been by far Chelsea's best player this season - instead choosing to play fullback Ryan Bertrand down the left, to shore up the defense.
"We have too many games now so the idea is to manage the squad and use the players we have," Benitez said. "You can't play the same team every time because if you do we have West Ham in two days, and then Japan (for the Club World Cup). We have to try and manage the squad.
"When you play five competitions it's really important to give the message that everyone will be important at the end, we have five competitions and they will have chances."
Fulham manager Martin Jol was happy with his side's defending, but not so joyous about coming home with just a point against their West London rivals. "I thought Berbatov was fantastic," Jol said. "The way he linked the midfield was unbelievable.
"We wanted to frustrate them and keep a clean sheet. We know we are a difficult team to play against.
"I felt we handled their star players well. To go away from home and to keep a clean sheet is exactly what we wanted but we are frustrated not to win the game."
