Hiddink: Finishing could have been better

Cape Town - Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink expressed his satisfaction at extending his unbeaten start in the Premier League with a 2-1 win at Norwich on Tuesday.

The Blues got off to a flying start at Carrow Road when Kenedy opened the scoring after just 39 seconds to record the fastest goal in the top flight this season.

Diego Costa continued his impressive form with a second goal for the visitors in first-half stoppage time, although he was perhaps lucky not to see his effort ruled out for offside.

Nathan Redmond managed to halve the deficit for the Canaries on 68 minutes, but Hiddink's side held on for all three points to claim their third straight victory in the league and move up to eighth in the standings.

The Dutchman remains undefeated in the league since replacing former manager Jose Mourinho at the helm in December, having gone 11 games without losing, but he felt the west Londoners should have won by a more convincing margin.

"We have now won a few games in a row which of course gives us satisfaction," Hiddink said after the match.

"But when I look at the game we were a bit sloppy with our finishing.

"We had a splendid start through Kenedy, a beautiful goal. After that we had some options to get a second in the first half which we did at the end, but before that we should have killed it off.

"I am satisfied with the results we are getting but I always like to be critical with the way we could have finished it off earlier."

The defending league champions are now just five points adrift of the European places, although fifth-placed Manchester United do have a game in hand, and Hiddink is continuing to look up the table after pulling away from the relegation zone.

"Are they catchable? Well first of all we are happy we are away from the relegation zone, though that's not the Chelsea style," he added.

"Now with the ambition of Chelsea we must set a new target and see what can we do in the direction of Europe. We have to keep on winning.

"We have a tight schedule as everyone knows. The squad is not very broad so we hope everyone is on board in the upcoming time. If everyone is, with no big injuries, then we would like to go as high as possible towards the European spots."