Chelsea players let everybody down, says skipper John Terry

Hiddink told the club’s website after the crucial match what the Nigerian adds to the team.

A common criticism as Mourinho’s tenure tempestuously wound down was that Chelsea’s creative players were not fighting for the cause and Hiddink insists this is not something he will tolerate.

“He’s the ideal player in my option to bring balance to the team”, Hiddink said.

“Chelsea were very good”.

“If he comes back as a coach it will be a great addition to all the team”.

Chelsea earned their first away win in the league for over four months with a 3-0 victory at Crystal Palace on Sunday.

Thibaut Courtois has warned his team-mates they could end up on the Chelsea scrapheap just like Jose Mourinho.

The Eagles would have had high hopes of completing a league double over their London rivals, after a superb 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season.

“Mathematically we can still get to the Champions League positions, but it will be hard”, he said.

“It was pivitol but we still had a lot of time to get ourselves out of that and the response was OK, but wasn’t sustained for long about and everyone n the dressing room knows that”. Some teams are close together. If we beat West Brom and Everton we could be maybe eighth or ninth in a few weeks.

Oscar put the Blues ahead against the run of play, tapping home after being put through by Diego Costa in the 29th minute. It’s something psychological. Sometimes it changes with little changes. “Maybe we needed a little change to pick up our level”, he said.

“In football it’s always like that”.

“Things did not go our way today and we have to respond and I have every confidence in this group that we will be in and around the top 10”. It was fine to play out there (despite the wet weather conditions), I was disappointed with the way I played on a personal note. You could play only the smaller teams and only face a bigger one for the final. However, if Wilfried Zaha had made the most of a great chance with the score 0-0, then maybe things would have gone differently for the hosts.

“These players [Costa and Fabregas], they know what responsibility is”, Hiddink said.

‘That we need to pick up our level because we are not playing good enough for a Chelsea player.’ The arrival of Guus Hiddink has heralded an improvement; Chelsea now four games unbeaten following their comprehensive win over Crystal Palace on Sunday.

Hiddink, in his second stint as interim manager of the club, guided Chelsea to the FA Cup during his first spell in 2009.