Portsmouth vs Chelsea | 03-Mar-08 at 19:45 UK

Three wins in three matches—a close home league match, a historic away league match and a very tough european match. You’ve got to give it to Hiddink. I know it’s been only three matches. I know it’s a little to early for euphoria.

Hiddink has got the team’s confidence back. We are scoring goals, we are not conceding many and we seem to have stopped conceding through set pieces. It’s pretty clear that our attack has improved. Though the defence can improve, it is the way we attacked in those three matches that stood out.

Hiddink has been saying the right things too. I like the way he communicates. His clarity of communication shows what kind of thinker he is. He is very clear about what he wants. He has been very forthright in saying that we don’t control the game well enough. That’s very true.

Despite winning three successive important matches, we did not control any of these matches very well. He put it very nicely and simply. The moment we score (we scored first in all these matches), defence is dropping deeper and the attack goes forward in confidence, stranding the midfield.

That’s because, once we take a lead, attack wants to increase the lead while defence wants to hold on to the lead. This does not help the midfield in controlling the game. In short, the players don’t play as a team when we take a lead.

Hiddink sounds like a very intelligent man. Surely, he has noticed this and must be working on this. Remember that phrase—"grinding out a win"—that’s the journos way of saying ‘these chelsea bastards have won again’. The way I saw it, "grinding out" was through controlling the play.

Measured passing, risk-free play, cautious approach in attack, no-nonsense defending etc. Basically, controlling the game so that the opponent loses hope while you coast for a win. That’s one way of killing the game. Not every match would you be able to kill the game by scoring some more goals. You should be able to kill the game even if you can’t score.

See what Guus has to say about this:

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"What I see in training and parts of the game we can improve on some aspects, but what I see is that players are very disciplined and committed to what we like to do. What we like to improve is our control in the games. Sometimes we struggle too much to get control. With all respect to Wigan, they caused us too many problems - we can improve in some tactical aspects of the game and we are working daily to get more control."

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Frank Lampard, who seems to be in form irrespective of who’s in charge, has very high regards for Hiddink.

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"Guus Hiddink has obviously made a positive difference to the team. He’s come in within a short space of time to try make the difference. He’s done it by just saying the simple things and getting us working hard on the training ground and tactically working hard to organise us a bit better. I have been very impressed and enjoyed working with him. The players have reacted and we needed to do that."

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Simple things—that’s all is needed most of the time. Like they say, common sense is the most uncommon thing. Chelsea team is made up of highly skilled professionals who have loads of experience at this level. All that is required is a little motivation, some extra hard work, some competition for places and you got it.

More often than not, this would take you through for a second or third place with a team like Chelsea. To become champions, Hiddink will have to show that he’s special. All that he is saying about Chelsea still being in the title race is all nice to hear.

For even to think about the title, we need to put in a winning run like Real Madrid. We certainly have a team to do that.

And I, for some reason, seem to trust Hiddink a lot. Lampard says Hiddink has made a positive difference to the team. But the fact is, he has given that confidence to me as well.

Suddenly, Portsmouth looks like an easy hurdle. I may not get my old tinge of arrogance back but certainly my confidence is back. If Hiddink despatches Juve, I’ll start loud mouthing again.

Not really a pre-match article this one. It does not have to be, right? Just something to talk ahead of the match. I’ll put my money on a 2-0 win for Chelsea with Anelka scoring both.