BENITEZ APUMUA, CHELSEA YAICHAPA BORO 2-0

Rafa Benitez was thrown a gentle lob and threw back a smile, a shrug and an honest answer.

‘Who scored the first goal?’ he was asked.

‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘They were asking me in the dressing room and we will look at the video and decide.’

He might not now.

**Scroll down to watch match highlights of Chelsea's triumph at the Riverside Stadium

Off the back: Fernando Torres 'scored' after Ramires' shot clipped him on the way in

Double trouble: Victor Moses rolls home after great work from Oscar and Eden Hazard

Match facts

Middlesbrough: Steele, Bailey, McManus, Bikey (Hines 35), Friend, Carayol (Zemmama 74), Leadbitter, Rhys Williams, Haroun, Main (Miller 62), McDonald.

Subs not used: Leutwiler, Emnes, Ledesma, Smallwood.

Booked: McManus, Bailey.

Chelsea: Cech, Ferreira, Ivanovic, Terry, Bertrand, Ake, Ramires, Moses (Luiz 76), Oscar (Marin 79), Benayoun (Hazard 58), Torres.

Subs not used: Turnbull, Cole, Lampard, Ba.

Goals: Torres 51, Moses 73.

Ref: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire).

After the dust had settled on the discussion about who scored the opening goal in Chelsea’s win over Middlesbrough, which was claimed by Fernando Torres, like all good or bad strikers, Benitez stunned the packed room at the Riverside.

He shifted seamlessly into a rant which took in ‘a group of Chelsea supporters’ and, more significantly, Roman Abramovich, although the owner was not named.

Victory over Championship promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough was secured with a second goal from Victor Moses after Ramires’s seventh goal of the season, which Torres tried to claim as his 16th when the Brazilian’s shot hit the Spaniard’s shoulder on its way in, had put Chelsea ahead.

But it may not be enough to save Benitez after his stunning attack on supporters who had chanted ‘we don’t care about Rafa’ for large periods of a tepid and unimpressive performance from a side which had eight changes to the one beaten at Manchester City.

Eden Hazard, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Demba Ba and former Middlesbrough keeper Ross Turnbull were among those on the bench, John Terry was recalled as captain, Nathan Ake made his debut and Paulo Ferreira appeared for the first time since May.

You have it: Ramires hugs Torres as Chelsea celebrate taking the lead

Come on: Chelsea were lethargic during the game but did enough to beat Boro

Benitez, who earlier in the week claimed his players were behind him, signed the team sheet — then probably signed his Chelsea death warrant with the kind of outburst which cost him his job at Inter Milan.

He has the worst win percentage of any of Abramovich’s managers at 52 per cent compared to Jose Mourinho at 70 per cent and Roberto Di Matteo, the man he replaced, at 63 per cent.

He was fortunate his Chelsea reign didn’t end in defeat as his team could have been behind before half-time.

They managed just one shot on target in the first half — a weak Torres effort which underlined his determination to claim his second goal in 1,130 minutes of action.

Deflection: Torres tries to get out of the way of the ball but it ends up going in off of him

Boro finished with 12 shots to Chelsea’s eight but it was Scott McDonald’s header that might have changed the night.

Fine work in the corner from Faris Haroun helped create the chance and the Belgian winger, one of a number of Boro players just back from injury, cleverly danced past Ryan Bertrand and Yossi Benayoun to find Nicky Bailey standing unmarked. The former Charlton midfielder, filling in for Stuart Parnaby at right back, delivered a pinpoint cross which former Celtic striker McDonald headed wide.

On the other flank, Mustapha Carayol caught Petr Cech by surprise with a bouncing shot from distance which hit the Chelsea keeper’s chest and bounced away from McDonald so Terry could clear.

Scowl: Rafael Benitez looks on as Torres walks past

The damage was done to Middlesbrough’s hopes of an FA Cup shock with that shot from Ramires just six minutes into the second half.

Ferreira marked his rare appearance with a deep cross into the penalty area, where Benayoun, another player handed a rare opportunity by Benitez, cleverly played the ball back to Ramires on the edge of the box.

The Brazilian midfielder’s rising shot took a deflection through the crowd to put it out of the reach of keeper Jason Steele, who was at full stretch as it flew into the top corner.

Torres emerged indicating the ball had hit his shoulder and Boro’s stadium announcer Mark Page duly credited the striker with the goal.

Up for the cup: Chelsea skipper John Terry played the entire match

Up for it: Nathan Ake (right), making his first senior start, was impressive

Chelsea then dominated after the introduction of Hazard, who almost marked his return to action 10 minutes later with a goal from a delightful curling effort which flew only just wide.

Within seconds, however, the Belgian supplied Moses for the second goal from close range, seizing on a lovely back heel from Oscar to slide the ball for Moses to tap into an empty net.

There were 27,856 at the Riverside Stadium, a brief reminder of what used to be on Teesside and an incentive for Tony Mowbray’s side ahead of Saturday’s promotion clash against Championship leaders Cardiff.

Mowbray said: ‘An atmosphere helps footballers, the Riverside has a Premier League feel to it and we did ok. But you look at Hazard coming off the bench and the quality of the second goal and we have no complaints. We gave it a go and it was a good lesson.’

But it wasn’t Mowbray’s post-match comments which mattered. The damage had already been done by the time he walked into the press room.