Guus Hiddink demands hard yards from Chelsea stars

The Spain worldwide, heavily criticised by Chelsea supporters for his lacklustre form in the slump that saw Jose Mourinho part company with the club last month, dictated proceedings as Oscar, Willian and Diego Costa were on target to record the first win of Guus Hiddink’s second spell in charge.

The Blues continued to look composed after the break and Kurt Zouma should have doubled their advantage but headed a Willian free-kick over the bar with the goal at his mercy.

Palace were beaten and it was Chelsea with Scott Dann blocking Oscar’s goal-bound shot before Costa volleyed wide.

Oscar fired home Chelsea’s opener versus Palace…

Palace, so impressive this season, was unable to respond although Wilfried Zaha should have done better with a chance which Thibaut Courtois saved.

Willian smashed in Chelsea’s second on the hour with a thumping shot from outside the area and shortly afterwards Costa capped a hard-working performance with a close-range third goal.

A win for Chelsea could see them move six points clear of the relegation zone, dispelling any chatter about their impending doom.

However, Hiddink had only positive things to say about the mercurial playmaker, insisting he had seen evidence of determination from Hazard to return ahead of schedule. “It’s not just one player”.

Hazard was Footballer of the Year in England last season, but has gone 30 club games without scoring in Chelsea’s troubled start to the current campaign.

Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace will be three key players in Yohan Cabaye, Connor Wickham and Yannick Bolasie.

“We’ve started working and if the team is not doing well through a long period then you have to look for security, and that’s why we emphasised on good, hard work, tactically and a defensive way”, said Hiddink. Guus has been great since he has come in. It’s unfortunate what’s happened, we feel we’ve let everyone down, but the new man’s come in like he did last time and picked everyone up.

“He played very well but also in the previous game”, said Hiddink of Mikel.

“When you’ve got a very, very good team and they take the lead, their confidence gets up”.

“We don’t need to add a lot of quality of players: they are blessed by nature with big quality”.