Frank Lampard: Rafael Benítez has been a success at Chelsea

Frank Lampard believes Rafael Benítez’s short but eventful reign as Chelsea manager should be considered a success.

The Spaniard, who took over on a temporary basis from Roberto Di Matteo back in November, led the west Londoners to a third-place finish in the league as well as the Europa League title.

And Lampard believes that the former Liverpool boss has proved his critics wrong and can walk away from a “difficult” spell at Stamford Bridge with his head held high.

“He is not a manager that goes round putting his arm around every player – and I’m not saying that’s wrong,” Lampard is quoted as saying by the Sun.

“There are a lot of managers like that; Fabio Capello was like that with England. He is a professional bloke. He prepared very well for games.

“And it was a difficult situation for him as well. As interim manager it was always going to be quite difficult for him because we all knew it was only until the end of the season.

“So there was no planning, no long-term relationships were going to be built. So, in that respect he did a good job because we got the end result – success.”