Chelsea displayed some of the swagger from last season’s title-winning campaign in beating Crystal Palace 3-0 in the Premier League to continue their resurgence under caretaker manager Guus Hiddink yesterday.
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Hiddink is unbeaten since taking over on an interim basis following the sacking of Jose Mourinho last month, although the win at Palace was his first following draws with Watford and Manchester United over the Christmas programme.
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‘Chelsea have had a great side but something has been lost on the way this season.
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Willian then dribbled into the area and sent in a low shot that was only parried by goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey out to Costa, whose tap-in deflected into the net off Joel Ward in the 66th and sealed Chelsea’s biggest league win in nearly a year.
For Palace, who started the day 11 points above Chelsea, it was a disappointing 90 minutes.
Pardew will also be without injured forwards Bakary Sako and Dwight Gayle. In fact we went away from our game plan and started forcing things, which can sometimes happen when you’re not scoring goals and you feel like you’re not going to score.
The second half of the season is now well under way and the game which I am most excited about is that between Chelsea and Crystal Palace. The good news for the Blues in that department is that Diego Costa is available for the game after serving a one match suspension (for a fifth yellow card). If you saw, in the previous time, Chelsea conceded a lot of goals. He has quickly overhauled the entire culture of the club, from one that was content to survive and avoid defeat to one that now sets out to win every game, both home and away.
“When I came here there was a lack of belief”.
Alan Pardew has won five of his last eight Premier League matches as a manager against Chelsea (W5 D0 L3).
Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew is adamant a new order isn’t forming in the Premier League.
“We’ve started working and if the team is not doing well through a long period then you have to look for security, and that’s why we emphasised on good, hard work, tactically and a defensive way”, said Hiddink.
“This was the Chelsea of past year”, Terry told Sky Sports.
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“I don’t like to see a team drop back, to seek false security, but to look forward, to get the ball as soon as possible because when they get the ball, they know how to play”.
