Hiddink Appointed Interim Chelsea Manager: Club

The news was confirmed via a statement on Chelsea‘s official website on Saturday afternoon in the build-up to the home clash with Sunderland at Stamford Bridge.

Following the sacking of Jose Mourinho, Chelsea have bounced back to winning ways with a 3-1 victory over Sunderland.

The veteran Dutchman, who had a previous spell in charge at Stamford Bridge in 2009, succeeds Jose Mourinho after he was sacked on Thursday following the club’s poor start to the season.

“I can assure you it was not a decision we took lightly, nor was it a spur-of-the-moment decision”.

“They will support us through the hard period and when we come out on top sooner or later”.

New interim manager Hiddink was watching in the stands after coming in for the departing Jose Mourinho and the Bluesgave their new coach something to smile about when they took an early lead. A fan banner also accused the Spaniards and Eden Hazard of being “rats”. We can not do that without you [the fans] being fully behind us.

There was no doubt Chelsea rediscovered the swagger and confidence of old at times.

Goals in the first 15 minutes from Branislav Ivanovic and Pedro put them firmly in the driving seat as Sunderland caved in, and the Londoners could have been four up by half-time.

They were peculiarly further riled eight minutes later by Pedro giving Chelsea a two-goal cushion by exploiting Sunderland’s inability to clear Ivanovic’s cross. Nemanja Matic had been little short of imperious in the first half but he struggled a little in the second, and his bad giveaway forced Oscar into conceding a risky free kick deep in the Chelsea half.

With Jose Mourhino exiting from Chelsea midweek this game just got a whole lot trickier to handicap. “Some of the football was excellent, one and two touch…it dropped off slightly in the second half but we were delighted”.

Coates was again culpable for Chelsea’s second in the 13th minute when the Uruguayan failed to cleanly intercept Ivanovic’s right wing cross. He quit as manager of Turkey after failing to qualify the team for the 2012 European Championship and did not win a trophy with Anzhi Makhachkala during a spell with the Russian club.

Hiddink will attend the match although assistant coaches Steve Holland and Eddie Newton will take charge.