RAFA: MY PLAYERS DESERVE GREAT CREDIT

Steve Hunter 20 January 2007 Rafael Benitez praised his players to the heights after their 2-0 victory over Chelsea and said the result was thoroughly deserved.

The Liverpool manager felt his team's great start to the game was a key factor and agreed that the Reds could easily have won by a greater margin than 2-0. "The players deserve great credit for this victory and they and the crowd did a fantastic job and we deserved to win this game," enthused Benitez. "We controlled the game and we played really well against a very good side. You know I don't like to talk about individuals because the team were fantastic but I thought Fabio Aurelio and Jermaine Pennant who scored his first goal did a fantastic job for us. We needed to control midfield because that is where they are very strong and Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard did that for us. "We knew how important a game this was and we are now five points behind Chelsea and it's a long race and we have to keep going."