Interim
Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink was pleased with his side's quick start against
Newcastle as it allowed him to rest players later in the game ahead of their
Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain.
The Blues won 5-1 at Stamford Bridge and were two goals up within nine
minutes with Diego Costa and Pedro on target.
Willian, another from Pedro and Bertrand Traore completed the scoring for
Hiddink's side before Andros Townsend got a late consolation for Newcastle.
With Chelsea in complete control, Hiddink was able to take Costa off after
an hour and replace Willian with 10 minutes remaining.
Speaking after the game, Hiddink revealed that it was a deliberate ploy to
start quickly and try and catch Steve McClaren's side unawares.
"I think we had a kick-start, we tried to press from the first minute to
surprise them and I think we did," he said. "We had an early goal, an early
second goal so that made them very unstable.
"I think [that gave us momentum] because everybody was talking about the
Tuesday game and then normally you start a little bit slow.
"But if you take advantage in the early stage of the game then you have some
rests in your team and you don't have to press in the later period of the
game."
Despite the attacking flair shown by Chelsea, it was their defensive work
that most pleased the former Netherlands head coach.
"They enjoyed playing but what for me is important is good organisation
defensively, not dropping back but trying to defend as soon as possible
forward," Hiddink added.
"That's what we have to do even more, but that's what I like. Everyone was
disciplined in his defensive work and then the quality automatically comes
up."
The victory was Chelsea's first at home in the league since Hiddink replaced
Jose Mourinho at the helm and the Dutchman feels the confidence is returning
to his squad.
"Everyone said we were unbeaten but we were not satisfied with being
unbeaten with a lot of draws," said the 69-year-old.
"We have more confidence now and play as we did today, we practised a lot on
that and it is good to be unbeaten with victories."
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