Hiddink has been thrown in at the deep end at Stamford Bridge after agreeing to take control of the Blues until the end of the season.

After beating Barclays Premier League rivals Aston Villa in his first game in charge, the Dutchman is now preparing himself for a high-pressure home debut against Juventus in the Champions League.

Chelsea face the Serie A side, managed by former Blues boss Claudio Ranieri in the first leg of their last-16 tie tomorrow night, and Hiddink will not accept the lack of preparation time as an excuse for failure.

"I should have two, three or four weeks to observe the team and everything, and then I'd start working.

"But there's no time. That's not an aspect of top-level sport, to offer excuses. It has to be done in the moment against Villa and what we have now, home and away, against Juventus.

"Every manager would like four, five or six weeks to implement a lot of things. But I have to do that in a reduced time, a pressured time. But we have to do it.

"I'd like to underline, we must not give ourselves an excuse because, if we do, there's a tendency that we go a little bit less and that's not good in the boys' minds."

Hiddink guided PSV Eindhoven to victory in the final of the European Cup in 1988 and took them to the last four of the Champions League in 2005.

But he is relishing the new challenge of European football with Chelsea.

"You are among the elite clubs if you're still in the Champions League after the winter," said Hiddink. "That's where a club like this needs to be. It's a very exciting competition for all of us.

"Being in charge for the first time is special. We had a good first game at Villa, so that takes away a little bit of the first excitement.

"But being in this competition with this home crowd, I think everyone can expect a lot from the team in the way of energy and passion."

But he knows it will be a difficult task against a Juventus side lying second behind Inter Milan in Serie A and who are managed by a man who is still very much cherished by the home fans.

"He's (Ranieri) a gentleman coach," said Hiddink. "He's very intelligent. Modest is maybe not the word, but he knows how to cope with the press and the pressure in this particular job. I respect him very much.

"He has several abilities. When he was working here, he made a team that was very competitive for the Premier League.

"Secondly, recently, he's very good at organising his team. His teams show themselves to have enormous tactical discipline. It's very difficult to play those teams that he is managing."

Hiddink also laughed off suggestions he had arrived at the club and brought fear into the dressing room. After Chelsea's victory over Aston Villa on Saturday, midfielder Frank Lampard claimed all the top coaches, including Hiddink, have a 'sense of fear about them'.

But Hiddink said: "I'm very serious about what needs to be done in the dressing room, but I don't like to bring in fear in this business, rather, some principles of modern football.

"That's what we emphasised last week. What can I tell you about fear? Maybe I'll try and smile a little bit more.

"We can be angry, of course, and very serious. But not as a total attitude. That's not our business."