Eden Hazard must prepare for more fouling when Chelsea return to the Champions League

Manchester United’s cynical gameplan and resultant red card shone a spotlight on the abuse Eden Hazard soaks up every game. Hazard must prepare himself for even more when Chelsea return to the Champions League next year.

Manchester United took the pitch at Stamford Bridge with a game plan worthy of a petty Machiavellian manager. United hacked down Eden Hazard at every opportunity and by any means possible. Referee Michael Oliver took the rare but justified step of issuing United a final warning. He then followed through by showing Ander Herrera a second yellow card.

The football media responded to Monday’s game with data, charts and explainers detailing what many Chelsea fans intuited. Hazard is the Premier League’s most-fouled player, and is among the most-fouled players in Europe.

Since 2014, Hazard has been on the receiving end of 258 fouls, 48 more than Wilfried Zaha, per SkySports. Across the five major European leagues, only Neymar has drawn more fouls this season than Hazard, with Lionel Messi in third place.

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Chelsea and Hazard must steel themselves for the return to the Champions League next year. Hazard, like other Premier League players, draws more fouls in European competitions than he does in England.

Hazard is fouled an average of 2.9 times per game in this year’s Premier League, his second-highest tally behind 3.0 times per game in 2014/15. However, Chelsea’s Premier League-winning season ranks only seventh among Eden Hazard’s campaigns for number of fouls suffered. Hazard averaged more fouls in each of his three seasons at Lille and in his first three Champions League campaigns than in any Premier League season.

Of the top five most-fouled Premier League players since 2014, Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez is the only one with comparable European experience. Like Hazard, Sanchez’s most-fouled seasons came in continental play. Sanchez averaged 3.4 fouls per game at Udinese in Serie A. He took 2.7 fouls per game in his last three Champions League runs. His most-fouled season at Arsenal ranks sixth among his career’s campaigns.

Similar patterns hold for Sergio Aguero and Kevin de Bruyne from Manchester City. Interestingly, these players came from each of the other four top European leagues. And for each player, their most-fouled season occurred outside of England.

An interesting question is whether the threshold for fouls is lower on the continent than in England, or if there really are objectively more fouls. Whichever the case, officials in Europe and England should learn from the example Michael Oliver set on Monday night.

Chelsea watchers and managers (including Jose Mourinho circa 18 months ago) gave up hope that Eden Hazard would receive any protection from the officials. Oliver adhered strictly to the rules to let United know he fully understood their game plan, and that he was putting an end to it both for the integrity of the game and to protect Hazard.

Oliver followed FIFA’s guidelines on the Laws of the Game regarding persistent infringement:

"It is generally advisable, though not required, to warn a player that he is nearing the threshold level before actually applying the sanction of a caution. There is no specific number of infringements which constitutes “persistence” or the presence of a pattern – this is entirely a matter of judgement and must be reached in the context of effective game management."

If one player, in any league, receives as many fouls as Eden Hazard does the referee is in a “persistent infringement” situation. Even if the tactic is not as obvious as Manchester United’s, the Laws of the Game call on officials “to be alert at all time” to such actions. And even if European leagues have a lower threshold for calling a foul than the Premier League (physicality and all that), at some point the fouls need to build up into a yellow card.

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