Chelsea can climb the table under Guus Hiddink, says Thibaut Courtois

Mourinho left Stamford Bridge last week after a awful defence of their Premier League title in the first half of the season left Chelsea narrowly above the relegation zone, with nine defeats from their first 16 games.

After Jose Mourinho was sacked last week, the 69-year-old Hiddink was brought back for a second spell as manager until the end of the season.

Montreal Impact are “willing to accommodate” Didier Drogba’s desire to help his former club Chelsea but expect the striker to return to Major League Soccer action next year.

Join ANTHONY HAY and MATT BARLOW for all the latest quotes from Chelsea’s Cobham training ground. “We said let’s go to May and then we’ll see what will happen”, he said. He insisted he has a big job to do to turn the season around, but has been encouraged by what he’s seen of his new set of players so far. As well as a bag full of league and FA Cup titles, he scored the winning goal in the 2012 Champions League final.

Mourinho received widespread support from the stands on Saturday, but Hiddink hopes they will focus more on supporting the team in future weeks as he looks to guide the club back into European contention.

Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas will get through his hard phase at Stamford Bridge and win back supporters who have been calling for his ouster, the Spaniard’s team mate Pedro has said.

And having seen his new charges beat Sunderland 3-1 over the weekend, Hiddink says he’s only looking forward, as he seeks to take the Blues back to where they believe they belong.

He gave the conditions after reports linked him as favourite for the Chelsea job upon Jose Mourinho’s demise on Thursday. “All the teams can kill each other”. “But, nevertheless, things happen in football and people take the decision they’ve taken”.

Chelsea are 20 points behind Leicester at the top of the Premier League and 11 even off Tottenham in fourth.

“Of course, we talked a bit about the past and why I’m here, the reasons why we are down”, he added. “I’m not going to be begging them [the players] to perform”.

Despite the fact results have been disappointing this season, the goalkeeper says there has been no lack of effort from the players during matches. I must first observe and analyse and then we will decide.