The assumption that Guus Hiddink is at Chelsea for the long haul, or as long as it gets amid the uncertain, shifting sands of life at Stamford Bridge, will not go away until his successor is appointed in the summer. In the meantime, the Dutchman should simply relax and enjoy his new job for what it is: the best gig in town.

A quick glance through the recent history books suggests that Chelsea are the most intense, pressurised club at which to work in the Barclays Premier League, with Roman Abramovich casting off managers as a Roman emperor would his concubines, but these circumstances are the exception that proves the rule. Until the end of the season, Hiddink is in a win-win situation.

If he is successful, by ending the club’s long wait to win the Champions League, there will be such a clamour for him to be appointed permanently that even Abramovich, the owner, will struggle to ignore it, leading to a political wrangle with the Russian Football Union for his services. If he fails, he can return to Moscow for a quiet life to steer Russia to next year’s World Cup finals in South Africa. As Hiddink acknowledged yesterday, his position is as close to bulletproof as it gets.

“At the end of the season, I cannot be sacked,” he said. “Before? Maybe. But not at the end of the season, because our working relationship ends at the end of the season.” The challenge begins this lunchtime away to Aston Villa, where Ricardo Carvalho could make a surprise return after a hamstring injury, having trained yesterday.

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But Hiddink cannot really come to harm, even in the more intangible area of maintaining his international reputation, because he will take the credit for any success while being able to blame setbacks on the unrest in a dressing-room whose divisions have already been made public. No wonder Hiddink did not consider joining Chelsea to be a risk, with the only danger being that he will antagonise fans in Russia, such as those who protested against his dual role in Moscow yesterday.

“It was not an easy decision to make, but in this business I don’t think it’s important to spend too much time worrying about risks,” the Chelsea interim manager said. “I love the game and working with young, energetic people and I am not so concerned about what might happen in the future. If you think too much about risks then you should sit at home and watch plastic flowers.”

All of which goes some way to explaining Hiddink’s relaxed demeanour at Stamford Bridge yesterday, but the tone he has taken with his players has been rather different. There has been a marked increase in intensity on the training ground this week and, in keeping with his preference for flexibility, the players have switched repeatedly between 4-4-2 and 4-3-3, in contrast to his predecessor’s dogmatic devotion to 4-1-4-1.

Hiddink is well aware of the fact that several players were implicated in Luiz Felipe Scolari’s departure, by failing to perform to their potential if nothing else, and made a point of reminding them of their responsibilities. The 62-year-old will revert to his senior players at Villa Park today after watching Ray Wilkins experiment with youth in the FA Cup win against Watford, but will stick with them only if they respond to his methods.

“In any group, whether you are footballers or anyone else, there is a hierarchy,” Hiddink said. “And that is how it should be because with the right attitude, you can challenge those players to take responsibility. I like to have a recognised hierarchy in my team because they can help boss the younger players, and I see that as healthy.

“A manager has power, but it’s limited power. When you bring in new ideas it’s not a revolution at all. The players have to cope with these ideas and they have to execute. I said to the players that I like very much the experience of the Premier League, but I’ve not come and asked them to give me three or four weeks and then we’ll start work. Chelsea are now in circumstances to deliver. The players must deliver up to their standard, up to the club’s standard. I don’t give them any excuses, saying let’s give it three or four weeks to see what has been changed.

“At any level, but especially the high level, you have to have the attitude to deliver and take your responsibility as a big player. If you take the responsibility then you have the right to fail every now and then because they are human as well, but not by not taking responsibility. They must always do that, no matter who is the manager and who is in charge. They owe that to the fans, who are very loyal to the club. They owe more to them than to managers or whatever.”

Having laid down the law to his players, Hiddink felt sufficiently relaxed to discuss his relationship with Abramovich, a subject that troubled most of his predecessors and ultimately did for them. Whereas Scolari spoke to the Russian “four or five” times in the space of seven months, Hiddink and Abramovich have been almost inseparable for the past week, with the owner attending the win away to Watford and the reserve-team match against Portsmouth at Griffin Park, as well as making regular trips to the training ground. Not even Avram Grant was able to work in such close proximity to Abramovich.