Watch Eden Hazard toy with Bournemouth during Chelsea win
Eden Hazard stepped up to the plate against Bournemouth with one of his finest performances to date. Relive the Chelsea star’s scintillating display.
Every now and then something that you already know to be brilliant reveals to you that your understanding of its brilliance is incomplete. For instance think of a telephone, then think of an iPhone. Think of Beyoncé, then think of Beyoncé dancing. Think of Twitter, then think of whatever happened with Samir Nasri’s account Tuesday night.
Now think of Eden Hazard, then think of Eden Hazard against Bournemouth. To call the Belgian ‘in form’ would be such an understatement it’d border on an insult. He was unmarkable, unplayable, and nearly unreal.
Thankfully, below we have nine minutes and twenty-eight seconds of video evidence that he was very much real (with some must-see landmarks noted beneath):
:50 – If there was a whisper as to the kind of day Bournemouth defenders would be in for, this was it. A delicate chest pass to Willian from a ball driven nearly forty yards.
2:33 – Drool worthy. He runs away from a man appearing to be twice his size and somehow swaps places with him by using some sort of footballing Jedi mind trick. Then the real fun begins, splitting two more defenders with deft touches and a burst of acceleration – all while nonchalantly disregarding the fire-breathing dragon behind him barreling for vengeance.
3:04 – The Almost Rabona. “It wouldn’t have counted anyway”, “Everyone had stopped playing”, “Almost doesn’t count”, these were the words typed by fans of teams that do not have an Eden Hazard. As it was, it was a simply marvelous miss that many players don’t have the quickness of thought and immediateness of skill to execute. Had it gone in I’d be writing this from the afterlife.
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4:20 – Remember the fire-breathing dragon? Hazard surely did. Knowing the large menace was eager, he dangled the opportunity for retribution in front of its face. Except Hazard was now in the box and any swipe at the bait would backfire. Sucker, 2-0.
5:57 – A free Hazard is a funny Hazard. Bournemouth defenders fouled Cesc Fabregas in their scramble to interrupt a one-two, but the Spaniard on the floor proved to be just another obstacle as Hazard softly bloop-chipped the ball over Cesc’s ass.
7:21 – Notice how calm and casual each control is and contrast it to the readied, determined-yet-frail stances of the defenders. This is Eden knowing he’s tortured the opposition enough that he can tease them with mere whiffs of danger.
7:34 – Unfortunately Eden’s worst touch of the match came after some of his most quintessential Eden’ing. Scampering away from one defender, seeing the fear in another’s eyes and aiming directly at it, holding on until every drop of suspense could seep in and convolute the man’s mind, then cutting across and unleashing a shot. Know how in action movies the main protagonist is saved from certain death by a secondary character switching off the power to some dastardly device? That defender may one day tell tales of this escape to his grandchildren.
Can a YouTube video exhibit in The Louvre?