Mikel John Obi says the atmosphere at Chelsea is good after José Mourinho was sacked as manager and replaced by Guus Hiddink.

The Portuguese was removed by the owner, Roman Abramovich, before Chelsea’s 3-1 victory over Sunderland on 19 December, a game overseen by Steve Holland, the assistant coach, before Hiddink took charge for the Boxing Day meeting with Watford.

That ended 2-2 and Chelsea also shared a goalless draw at Manchester United on Monday evening. But while Hiddink is yet to experience the first win of his second tenure at the club, Mikel is clear the Dutchman’s appointment has lifted the mood following the tempestuous tenure of Mourinho.

“I think the atmosphere was fine, always fine but we just weren’t getting the results, I don’t know what it was,” he said. “José is a fantastic manager and he will always be a fantastic guy. Sometimes football is a cruel game, you have to move on. He’s come back second time, won the club another trophy. Now the change has been made, we have to move on. Is it the right decision? Who knows? We’ll only see in the future.

“He [Hiddink] hasn’t changed much yet but he was here before and he knows the place and all the staff. The players are different – only me and John Terry were here before – but he knows what to do. We’re down there in the table for a reason so he can’t come in and perform miracles but we want to get out of there and climb the table. We’ve had three games now without losing so are making the right steps.”

The midfielder is unsure why Chelsea’s title defence has been so dismal. “I’ve been as confused as everyone else,” he said. “It’s difficult when you’re not playing, as you don’t really know what the problems are. I wasn’t playing that much under Mourinho so couldn’t put my finger on what was going wrong. It was a collective thing – the players and the manager were not performing.”

Despite United putting in an improved display for their under-pressure manager, Louis van Gaal, Mikel believes they were hesitant to attack at times. The goalless draw was United’s seventh of the season and the Nigerian said: “Sometimes you could see in the game that they had chances to attack but were a little bit sceptical or hesitant. Maybe they were a little bit scared.

“I don’t think they were really scared but just a bit cautious. They were playing not to lose as well. Because of the fast players we have up front, who can break, they were cautious and approached the game not to lose. Both teams are not in the right place right now to attack, attack, attack, attack. Sometimes you have to be smart and settle for a point.”

Chelsea are in 14th place, 15 points from a Champions League berth, after 19 games, the halfway point of the season. But Mikel has not given up on Chelsea finishing in the top four. “I don’t think it’s gone yet. We’ve got a lot of games left to play and points to catch up. If we keep going in this direction and keep keeping clean sheets then we’ll definitely score goals,” he said.