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“It’s about being in control of the football and Hiddink is the best”. But the fans have the right to express themselves about the recent past. ‘I don’t want to know a lot about that. The second reaction, nearly in the same second, was “you like your job so much you still have the desire and passion to do it”. I want to have a blank approach to them.

Ahead of the game, interim boss Guus Hiddink has been speaking to the media for the first time today since replacing Jose Mourinho as manager.

Chelsea has lost nine out of 17 games in the title defence to sit only three points above the relegation zone. Those who have been most underachieving may be reassured by a new man at the helm.

“There must be a great desire to play”, Hiddink said.

“If you don’t have that desire, please knock on my door and we’ll talk, briefly”. Were they performing poorly on objective this entire time? “They give the brand Chelsea a big image worldwide”. They told me yesterday we’d had a nice breakfast but we couldn’t agree who would pay! “They must have the heart full of the desire of an amateur”.

“I shouldn’t be here halfway through the season because it means that things are not going well”, the Dutchman said.

This weekend, Hiddink will likely deploy Cesc Fabregas alongside Matic to first break up and then dictate play from the depths of his midfield. So I shouldn’t be here, but I am.

“But anyhow I’m glad to be back”. Why I’m here, the reasons why we are down.

“It is a few years ago I was here in a similar situation”. I will see what will happen.

“We understand his attachment to his former club and his desire to help them”.

The sense of deja vu is obvious.

“Mathematically it is possible”.

“If you look back to the last season, where there was this huge success winning the title, then you go into the next season with targets and they’re the same”.

Hiddink has been appointed as the interim manager in charge till the month of May.

Flores has steered Watford to seventh in the table on a highly impressive Premier League return by the club.

But the real question is, what does it take for a group of such vastly experienced and successful players to become so disillusioned, apathetic and if Mourinho’s words are to be believed, treacherous?

“He is a key player as captain of the national team in Belgium – but also here when he gets back into shape”. And this league is different.

The new Chelsea boss also described the current landscape of the league as “refreshing”, praising the starts made by Leicester City, Crystal Palace and Watford. “All the teams, they can kill each other in the Premier League”.