Chelsea boss Rafael Benitez has praised the atmosphere at the club following his side's 4-0 win over Stoke City this afternoon.

Benitez has proved to be an unpopular figure since replacing Roberto Di Matteo at Stamford Bridge, and back-to-back home defeats against Queens Park Rangers and Swansea City had put the pressure back on the Blues after a good run of results.

The former Liverpool boss silenced his critics with this afternoon's emphatic win, however, and he believes that the side is more balanced now than it was under Di Matteo.

"The team is doing well, the players are happy. The players are training really well and you can see that they're trying to perform. All the staff are doing a great job so the atmosphere in the side is really good," said Benitez.

"When we play the games we cannot control what's going on outside the pitch but we'll try to do our best on the pitch and hopefully it will be easier. We cannot every week be thinking crisis, not crisis. We're scoring more goals than in the past, we're conceding half of the goals that the team has conceded in the past.

"That means we have more balance and that is the way to sustain the performance of the team at this level."

The result, Stoke's first home defeat in the league this season, sees Chelsea move up to third in the Premier League table.