Guus Hiddink has challenged his Chelsea flops to rediscover a winning formula as they start the new year with a tricky trip to Crystal Palace today.
Hiddink’s side have drawn against Watford and Manchester United since the Dutchman returned for his second spell as Chelsea interim manager following Jose Mourinho’s sacking.
That those two workmanlike performances were regarded as cause for encouragement shows just how far the champions had fallen during the miserable final days of Mourinho’s troubled reign.
Photo: Reuters
In a reversal of fortune that would have seemed remarkable at the end of last season when Chelsea were hoisting the Premier League trophy after beating Palace, Alan Pardew’s fifth-placed Eagles are now 11 points above the 14th-placed Blues.
Chelsea are only three points above the relegation zone and their struggles have been so prolonged that the club’s hierarchy are reportedly concerned about the lack of wage-reducing relegation clauses in their highly paid players’ contracts.
Hiddink knows Chelsea need to improve quickly to avoid a nerve-wracking fight against relegation, while a winning run to start this year would also lay a strong foundation for salvaging the season with success in the Champions League and FA Cup.
“We have started gathering some points. It [the draw with United] was the third consecutive game we didn’t lose, but that’s not enough,” Hiddink said. “You see how it is, all the big teams are losing points as well. We must come now in to a winning period of games, that’s important.”
In contrast to Chelsea’s woes, Palace, so long one of London’s lesser lights, now harbor genuine hopes of securing one of the few European berths in their history.
Pardew’s men are unbeaten in their past six matches and are unlikely to have any inferiority complex against Chelsea, having defeated them twice in their past four meetings, including a 2-1 success at Stamford Bridge earlier this season.
Hiddink has been back in English soccer for a few weeks, but the 69-year-old is already well aware of the threat posed by tenacious Palace.
“Crystal Palace are doing well. Alan Pardew has done a marvelous job in the period he has been working there,” Hiddink said. “If you look at the statistics, you have a team that has scored 23 goals in 19 games and just conceded 16, which means he is well organized with his team.”
“Nowadays it’s very difficult and if you see where our next opponent is in the table they are close to the Champions League positions,” he said. “So it’s not that easy now to have a long-term winning sequence.”
Chelsea striker Diego Costa is back from suspension and England defender Gary Cahill should be available after an ankle problem.
Significantly, Palace will be without suspended France midfielder Yohan Cabaye, while striker Connor Wickham and winger Yannick Bolasie are sidelined with calf and thigh injuries respectively.
Palace will also be missing Patrick Bamford, the young Chelsea forward who earlier this week called a halt to what he described a “terrible” loan spell with Pardew’s team.
Bamford, who hopes to find a new loan deal elsewhere, made only nine appearances for Palace and his petulant actions, for which he has since apologized, drew a rebuke from Pardew.
“He needs to harden as a professional. This experience will harden him,” Pardew said. “He was a little bit emotional and maybe he said some things that he regrets.”
“When you take a young player, you’re always hoping it’s going to go well,” he said. “It just didn’t work out.”
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that