Work for Hiddink to ponder

by Richard Field , 28 February 2009

Chelsea beat Wigan to maintain Guus Hiddink’s 100 percent record at the helm but it was not impressive.

It is the kind of performance which the Dutchman will hate because Chelsea could not contain control of this match and Hiddink often looked glum when the camera focused on him.

Wigan were unlucky not to take a point from Stamford Bridge and their manager Steve Bruce stated there was a strong case for both of Chelsea’s goals to be ruled out.

He may wish to dwell on the fact that Wigan could have won this match with a clinical show in front of goal.

Talking of managers, Hiddink’s predecessor Luiz Felipe Scolari was religiously accused of being unable to change games through his substitutions but the Dutchman’s threatened to have a disastrous effect at one stage.

The substitutions of Salomon Kalou and Michael Mancienne for Juliano Belletti and Ricardo Quaresma respectively seemed to upset the balance of the Chelsea side.

But who was the one player who maintained a fixed level throughout this end to end affair? It was Frank Lampard of course.

It is fair to say that if the England midfielder plays well, then Chelsea play well. He was accurate from set-pieces and was a huge threat in broken play.

Why can he not produce this type of performance at international level?

If Lampard is a top-class performer then Titus Bramble has a huge heart and never gives up.

He twice cleared the ball off the line and put in a number of crucial tackles to stem the flow towards Wigan’s goal and this under a manager who could have jettisoned the defender following a number of classic Bramble howlers when Bruce first returned to the managerial hot-seat at Wigan.