Did Guus Hiddink Really Improve Chelsea?

When Chelsea claimed their the English Premier League trophy last season with Portuguese tactician Jose Felix Mourinho in charge it seemed like the team was unstoppable with the additional signings of Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa in the summer of 2014, it described as the players
who completed the missing jigsaw as the team crumbled at the last minute a season before than 2013/2014.  Chelsea was therefore tipped to retain their trophy this season as they had one of the best team in the country.

Fast forward to Saturday August 08 2015 as the blues ended their first game with 10 men after the sending off of goalkeeper Thaibut Courtois against Swansea. Not only that , the game ended 2-2 with manager Mouriho involved in a public spat with team doctor Eva Carneiro. The blues subsequently were on a free fall from then on as the lost the next game 0-3 away at the Etihad against a Manual Pellegrini led side.

Coupled with that the team lie an embarrassing home game against newly promoted side Bournemouth and also lost at home to Crystal Palace, Southampton and Liverpool all in the first four months of the season. During that period Chelsea only won three games at home drawing one and in it's  eight home games .  If they home form was bad enough then the away form was worse as Jose Mourinho again picked up one win (2-3 against West Bromwich Albion), drawing once and losing five times .

It was a different ball game in the Champions League as the team topped their group which included Porto , Dynamo Kiev and Macabi Tel Aviv . In total Mourinho collected a total of four points out of a possible 12 each month , meaning a point ratio of one point per game before his sack.

Since the sack of Mourinho in December 21, 2015 Dutch coach Guus Hiddink has come and stabilised the club. With Hiddink the team went all through to the quarter -finals of the FA Cup before an embarassing loss to Everton at Goodison Park last weekend, although it could be argued he played weak Championship side MK Dons, a League Two side and a weakened Manchestet City that had four youngsters making their first senior appearance for the club. Under Hiddink the team are unbeaten in 12 games since his first game on December 26, which is the longest unbeaten run presently in the league . Also such run has made Hiddink the manager with the longest unbeaten run at start/beginning of any managers reign Incharge of a club. Under Hiddink the blues have averaged two points per game and a presently lie on 10th with 40 points from 29 games a departure from their previous position of 15th under Mourinho.

Unfortunately the problem with the reign of Hiddink is that he has failed to deliver in big cup games. These include the home and away  disgraceful loss  to PSG in the Champions League and the 2-0 loss to Everton in the FA Cup. What this entails is that unlike in his first spell , Hiddink is now mathematically out of every competition and also out of the race for top four in the league. This now means that whatever impact Hiddink might have made in the league in his  second spell will be overshadowed by his abysmal showings in the cup games. This is coming after his abysmal showing with the Dutch national team after taking over a team that finished third in the FIFA World Cup in Brazil (2014). Hiddink failed to qualify the Dutch team for the European Championship finals in France this summer, even with the luxury of having such stars as Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneider, Robin Van Persie, Klaas Hunterlaar to mention but a few.

Whatever happens from now on until season end one thing is clear , Guus Hiddink would not continue in the Chelsea dug out come summer, hence his second coming would be regarded as a disaster in the Cup competitions even though he stabilised the team in the league .