Didier Drogba is confident of recapturing his best form now that Guus Hiddink is in charge at Chelsea.

The Ivory Coast striker started only his ninth game of the season in the 3-1 FA Cup win at Watford on Saturday, having been frozen out for much of Luiz Felipe Scolari's spell at the club.

Drogba has been frustrated watching Chelsea struggle from the sidelines and in what appeared to be a swipe at Scolari said: "It's always good for a player to be on the pitch and it's always better to have some games. I hope I will get back to my best before the end of the season. I have been off the pitch for about five months. I hope now to show that I deserve to play, because for me it is important.

"Now we have to look forward because we have big games coming and we have to concentrate on them.

"In football anything can happen. We want to see how far we can go. What we can achieve. I think we showed [against Watford] we want to get to another FA Cup Final."

Fellow striker Nicholas Anelka also had a dig at his Brazilian former boss after finally getting a chance to play with Drogba up front.

Scolari started the duo only once before he was fired, but they were impressive at Vicarage Road, especially in the last 20 minutes when Chelsea played in a 4-4-2 formation. Anelka, who scored a hat-trick, said: "Of course we can work as a partnership for Chelsea. I have said it before and so has Didier but we've never tried us playing together.

"In 20 minutes, we scored three goals. To play with Didier up front changed the game and that's why we scored the goals and won the game. It was me scoring this time, but it might be Didier next time. That's good for Chelsea.

"I hope everybody will see what we can do together and that we will finally give it a try."

Hiddink is expected to take his first training session today having agreed to take charge for the rest of the season last week.

The Dutchman sat next to owner Roman Abramovich to watch his new team beat Watford and defender Michael Mancienne, who was making his debut, insists his presence has already given the squad a boost.

Mancienne said: "It's good to see the owner so close to the manager. It's good to see him coming to watch his team and it does give the boys confidence.

"Hiddink has been in and around the training ground the past few days and has come up to the lads and had a word with everyone. He seems genuine to me.

"He's basically said that we've got good players and a very strong squad, but he's just going to give us a bit of structure.

"Instead of our wing-backs pushing too high up like we have been doing in the past few games he wants one of them to cover back when the play is around the other side. He reinforced a few things and had a lot of tactical input before the game."