It's not so strange that the pressure on Guus Hiddink to stay on for next season as coach of Chelsea Football Club is mounting, after having seen the impressive performance of his team against Liverpool on Wednesday (1-3).

The Dutchman has put spirit and flair back into the squad of his temporary employer and although he makes it clear on each and every occasion that he is to leave the club at the end of this season, the decision is also for a good part up to club owner Roman Abramovich.

He has power both at Chelsea and at the Russian Federation and if it were up to the players of Chelsea the billionaire will forced back to the negotiating table in May.

Rafael Benítez, manager of Liverpool, put it into words a day before the meeting of the two English giants: "Since Hiddink has been in charge in London I have respect again for Chelsea. I like his style a lot more than Mourinho's. It all has to do with the way he approaches football."

At the time he could never have guessed that his team would be exposed in an incredible way within 24 hours of his remarks by that approach.

Since 2005 Chelsea and Liverpool have met in the Champions League each season.

And in none of these eight previous encounters either one of the two teams managed to score more than one goal in regular time.

Until last night.

Hiddink directed his team, still in the race for the league title as well, to an impressive victory at Anfield.

A victory no one expected as Liverpool were the team on form and usually possess fabulous powers on European nights in front of a home crowd.

And it wasn't that that form disappeared all of a sudden.

That was shown early on in the game when Dirk Kuyt put a volley just inches wide, just before Fernando Torres put the home team ahead.

But the one thing that the Chelsea players have learned from Hiddink is that you can achieve more with an offensive style than with leaning back on the defense and hope for a counter attack.

One of the first things Hiddink changed during training was the way the full backs played.

In Hiddink's way of playing the game they should play a lot further forward.

It was just a detail, but one with far reaching consequences for the way the whole team played, as because of the backs being higher up the pitch the midfielders and the forwards can push up further as well.

Yet the fact that one of the backs scored two goals had more to do with benefiting from set pieces.

Serbian right-back Branislav Ivanovic, replacing the injured Portuguese Bosingwa, scored twice with a header from a corner.

But it was the approach of Hiddink with the backs far up field that resulted in corner kicks being giving and it allowed the team 18 shots on goal.

Liverpool were handed a rare European home defeat because of it.

Didier Drogba's third goal, after a terrific attack down the left via the Frenchman Malouda, had Hiddink explode with joy on the bench.

Next Tuesday the Dutch coach will have to finish the job at Stamford Bridge.

When he manages to reach the semis at the expense of Liverpool Hiddink's popularity will reach above that of Benitez and make life for Abramovich a little bit harder.

"The intellectualisation
of football has
always foundered
on a simple problem-
-the players. Doing
all your most
rewarding thinking
with your feet seems
to dull the philo-
sophical impulse.
Unless, of course,
you are Dutch.
According to legend,
Europeans played
a moronic, muscular
version of the world's
game, until Holland
proclaimed its vision
of total football in the
1974 World Cup,
and enlightenment
dawned."

From:
Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football