Paul Wilsonwonders what else is at the heart of Chelsea's return to the sort of form of recent glory years

CHELSEA COULD get used to this kind of thing. In fact, they are getting used to this kind of thing. This was their second successful counter-attacking display in the space of a week, and while it might be argued that Juventus represent a considerably bigger scalp than Coventry City and the Champions League somewhat dwarfs the FA Cup, the simple facts are that the Ricoh Arena is a more up-to-date facility than the Stadio Olimpico and on Saturday it held more people.

Juve’s temporary home does not even have any replay facilities, so television viewers probably had a better idea that Didier Drogba had been denied a perfectly good equaliser to Vincenzo Iaquinta’s opening goal, before Michael Essien brought Chelsea back on terms on the stroke of the interval. Gianluigi Buffon appeared to carry Drogba’s shot from a free-kick over the line with him, but pulled it back quickly before the referee or his assistant could form a view.

A month or so ago it might have knocked Chelsea out of their stride, yet they simply came back and scored through Essien on their next attack, from a Frank Lampard shot deflected off the crossbar and down to the line.

Juventus were considerably better than Coventry, in case anyone was wondering, though the real question to be asked is why Chelsea are so much better than the sorry bunch who cost Luiz Felipe Scolari his job. While the short answer might be Guus Hiddink, that cannot be the whole answer. Not even the Dutchman’s biggest fans would suggest he is such a font of coaching wisdom that he can walk into a troubled club and correct all his World Cup-winning predecessor’s mistakes, if mistakes they were, with a subtle change of emphasis and a few new training ground drills.

No, the more Chelsea play like this, like the Chelsea of old, the more it appears they were hiding their usual resolve and determination in a place where Scolari couldn’t find it.

Of course it helped having Essien and Nicolas Anelka back for this second leg; the former’s absence has been a major factor in Chelsea’s unsteadiness this season. With Ricardo Carvalho and Deco on the bench, Chelsea were back to something like full strength for the first time this season, but the sea-change took place a couple of weeks ago.

Chelsea’s belief in themselves subdued this stadium before a ball had been kicked. They looked a team that meant business.

Alex Ferguson used to dread playing Juventus because they were so physically intimidating. They would psych United out in the tunnel, Ferguson used to say, both by dint of their stature and their reputation. Juve have shrunk a bit since then.

Chelsea have grown a foot or so in the last four weeks. Why else would the Curva Sud have gone to the trouble of erecting a massive “Yes We Can” banner before kick-off? That spelled out the home side’s nervousness.

Even when Juventus went ahead, it never looked all that much like they could.

The game see-sawed madly for the first half hour. Pavel Nedved needed assistance from the golf buggy twice in the first 10 minutes then departed after 13.

Chelsea must have been encouraged by that, yet they went behind six minutes later. While that only levelled up the aggregate with plenty of time left for the visitors to grab an away goal on the counter, it was uncharted territory in the sense that Chelsea have never had to come from behind under Hiddink.

Strictly speaking Ray Wilkins was in charge on day one of the mini-revival at Watford, and while Hiddink’s instant transformation of Chelsea into something resembling the force of old has undoubtedly been an achievement, it is also true that they have had things more or less as they would have wished since he arrived.

The initial reaction to going behind was not encouraging. Petr Cech got away with flapping at a cross, Michael Ballack got away with a handball, Lampard displayed an unusually poor first touch when a shooting opportunity came his way and Anelka almost hit the corner flag instead of Buffon’s goal.

Crucially, however, Chelsea did not panic. They played their patient game and worked out a way back in. Hiddink clearly has them thinking for themselves again. The only mystery is why they ever stopped.