SUPER Eagles midfielder, John Obi Mikel is practically part of the furniture at Chelsea. To Guus Hiddink, though, he isn't ready for the testimonial treatment just yet.Chelsea's midfield has been feeble this season but last week was different as Mikel maintained his unbeaten record under the interim manager.
Mikel has played 19 games across two seasons under Hiddink and never lost – drawing five and winning 14, including the FA Cup final in 2009. Crystal Palace became his latest victim last week and Scunthorpe could be next.Chelsea signed Mikel in 2006 and their win percentage rises when he is in the team. With him, it is 61.8 per cent . Without, it drops to 58.1 per cent.
Last week he was preferred to Nemanja Matic and was a catalyst for Chelsea's most complete performance this season.
You can't bully him, nor can you shove him off the ball. The
28-year-old tackled, blocked, cleared and intercepted at
Selhurst Park – and produced an unrivalled 95.1 per cent pass
completion rate too.
It was the fourth highest accuracy by any player with 80 or
more passes in a Premier League game this season, and Hiddink
said afterwards: 'I think John Obi can be one of the key figures in bringing back balance.
'He reads the game very well, he knows where the strength of the opponent is and knows how to combat that. He has very good sense, he doesn't do it in a brutal way, he's very elegant. Someone who can defend so smoothly is very beautiful.'
Thumbs up don't get better than that, and Mikel even brought the best out of Cesc Fabregas.
Alan Pardew admitted his players 'couldn't get near' the Spain midfielder, who made more passes than anyone else (104) with 89.4 per cent accuracy.
It wasn't as precise as his partner but those numbers have been a rarity for Fabregas this season, given he managed just 78.9 per cent against Watford in their 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge in his last appearance.
Hiddink has faith in Mikel – more than his predecessor anyway.
The man due a testimonial this summer after 10 years at Chelsea has already played 225 minutes under Hiddink in the Premier League this season, having played just 177 under Jose Mourinho.
He didn't start consecutive Premier League games in 2015 at all, yet has already righted that wrong in 2016.
Mikel was used infrequently by Mourinho but Hiddink turned to
him almost immediately, as if it was 2009 all over again. The only season when Mikel made more than 30 appearances in the Premier League, after all, was in 2008/09 during Hiddink's first spell at Chelsea.
Mikel said recently: 'It's difficult when you're not playing, as you don't really know what the problems are.
'I wasn't playing that much under Mourinho so couldn't put my
finger on what was going wrong. It was a collective thing – the players and the manager were not performing.'
It is 11 years since Mikel came runner-up to Lionel Messi at the Under 20 World Cup in 2005 as the tournament's MVP, when he was used to playing as an attacking midfielder for Nigeria.
That role was reduced in England, and commentators are never far from mentioning his barely-existent goalscoring record in the Premier League (one goal in 225 appearances) whenever he unleashes a wayward shot. But that's not his job.
Last week he bossed midfield and tidied up for Chelsea, who looked rejuvenated by Mikel's partnership with Fabregas.
And so Matic may need to get used to the substitutes' bench because, with his record under Hiddink, Mikel could be here to stay as Chelsea's unlikely go-to guy.
Culled from dailymail.co.uk
