Chelsea defender Gary Cahill has praised the work being done at the club by under-fire manager Rafael Benitez.

The Spaniard took over the Premier League giants last month, following the departure of Roberto Di Matteo, and has struggled to win over the fans.

England international Cahill believes that his coach is improving the team, despite a poor run of results prior to their 3-1 victor over Sunderland last weekend:

"Since (Benitez) came we have tightened up as a unit, defensively and as a team," he is quoted by ESPN.

"That's given us a platform to build on.

“It was hard at first to get his points across because we were playing games almost every other day.

"Now the players are adapting, they know what's expected of them and it's working well at the minute."

The Blues are in FIFA World Club Cup action later today against Mexican outfit Monterrey and Cahill admitted ahead of the game that the importance of the competition is only just setting in:

"Since coming here, it's sunk in now how big it is,

"It's hard to get into the competition in the first place. We've come all this way and want to win it."