Hiddink praises 'very clever' Bertrand Traoré ahead of possible full debut against Norwich City

Things are sort of, kind of starting to look up at Chelsea Football Club, with players rediscovering their form, with fresh hopes rekindled of possibly making something out this season yet, and even with some youngsters starting to make the impact we've all hoped they would be able to make at the start of the season.  First and foremost recently in that regard is of course Bertrand Traoré, who, after disappearing off the radar for many months, has served notice of his talents with three straight goal-scoring substitute appearances.  Given those successes and his credentials from the Eredivisie, a full debut would not be surprising in tonight's encounter at Carrow Road as Chelsea look for a third successive Premier League win.

"If I see Traore now, when I came in he was always ambitious and a very fresh guy. I liked his attitude, not saying I didn't like others, but I liked his fresh approach - not afraid to make errors or influenced by external circumstances. He is fresh whether there are no spectators or whether there are 40,000 in the stadium, he is not impressed by that and I like that, he is very spontaneous."

Traoré certainly doesn't seem to be lacking for confidence (see also: Kenedy) and, so far at least, he's never shied away from taking a shot or trying to create something on the pitch.  The skills and the mentality are still raw, but that just means there's plenty of room to improve.

"We spoke to him in training about how to improve. All young players must know how the game is played. He was overdoing it a bit because he is very mobile and busy, he was overdoing it. It was not circus but it was too much and he was punished several times by strong defenders. He is coping with that much better in recent weeks which means he is open to learn and you can teach him, you can say 'work on this' and he is very clever to do so."

-Guus Hiddink; source: Evening Standard

Hiddink has hinted at giving Diego Costa a well deserved rest in one of our two games this week, while also seemingly placing Traoré ahead of both Pato and Rémy in the backup striker pecking order.  Should the 20-year-old be given his starting opportunity after seven substitute appearances, I expect nothing less than absolute, resounding success.