Manchester United vs Chelsea: Guus Hiddink in no mood to look back as Chelsea go in search of lost ground

Seven of the last 11 Chelsea managers, including Guus Hiddink first time around, have won a trophy in their first season, but the Dutchman will have seen enough in Saturday’s 2-2 draw at home to Watford to know that repeating the feat would be an even more impressive achievement seven years on. He was, after all, brought in last time because Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team had slipped as low as fourth in the Premier League.

The class of what will soon be 2016 go to Old Trafford on Monday in the bottom six, and with their main striker Diego Costa absent because that little devil in him, so useful when put to constructive use earlier in Saturday’s game, went out of control at just the wrong moment, causing a fifth yellow card of the season and consequent suspension.

Hiddink must now decide whether Loïc Rémy produced enough in training last week to justify starting this evening or whether the false nine routine practised with only mixed success by his predecessor, Jose Mourinho, is worth another go. If so, then Eden Hazard would be a candidate after worrying Watford in his 15 minutes as a substitute, earning the late penalty from which Oscar should have won the game.

“For me he is not top fit yet but very fresh in his mind, and that’s important,” Hiddink said of the Belgian midfielder, whose fall from grace after last season’s heroics had been as spectacular as Costa’s or anyone else’s during these past few months.

His new manager, however, seems prepared to let bygones be just that, adding: “I don’t want to go back in the recent past. That’s why when I had my talks with people before taking the job,” – apparently including Mourinho – “I said I don’t [want] much info, I want to have my eye and use my experience to see how they manage and act on the training pitch. Then everyone has his chance.”

Not yet, however, Radamel Falcao, much as he would love to line up against his former club, to whom he has as much to prove as his current employer. “He is training with us but there is a difference of being fit and game fit,” Hiddink said. “You need longer in training. If you are to play these games, you must be very fit. We have to see him for a bit longer. He is going into more intense training sessions and then we can see what he is capable of.”

If Falcao will not be going back to Old Trafford, Hiddink himself is relishing the trip as he readjusts quickly to the madness of the 48-hour turn-around that English football demands over the so-called holiday period. “I feel literally the thrill in my stomach. It is always nice with all the past we have, and the beautiful feelings, going to the big stadiums, for intense games, which it will be on Monday as well.”

He sensibly declined to make too much of the longstanding rivalry with his fellow countryman, the Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal, except to say: “It’s difficult for me to give a judgement about that. Man United were first, were second and now they’re in a difficult period. Every Chelsea versus Manchester United game is big but this one is especially.”

Hiddink did not come up against United in his previous spell at Chelsea in 2009, but he has a hazy memory of a 1-0 defeat there in a European tie (presumably as assistant manager of PSV Eindhoven in 1984) and still knows the name of “my player who cost the penalty”. So he may also recall how a 3-0 defeat by Van Gaal’s Barcelona helped push him towards a white handkerchief farewell from Real Madrid in 1999. Now the boot – in every sense – could be on the other foot.

Having worried about having too much creativity and not enough stability in midfield, Chelsea may well persist with John Obi Mikel instead of Cesc Fabregas and introduce the fresh legs of Ramires too.

However well the players respond to the avuncular Dutchman, the gap to the Champions League place still theoretically being targeted grew by another two points on Saturday. Sitting 10 points behind United is one thing, however unpalatable; 10 points behind Watford, excellent as they have been, is quite another.