Chelsea: Eden Hazard finds new ways to improve upon his genius

After an injury-induced sluggish start to the season, Eden Hazard has stepped up his performances at Chelsea in recent weeks.

Midway through the first half of Chelsea’s game at Anfield on Saturday, Eden Hazard received the ball from Marcos Alonso in the centre of the pitch. He had his back to goal, with an entire Liverpool midfield and defence between him and Simon Mignolet.

Close behind him was James Milner, the former England man pressuring him as is the norm with Jurgen Klopp’s team. Hazard simply received the ball, shielded it, and in one smooth motion dropped the shoulder, leaving Milner running in the opposite direction. Now with a bit of space, Hazard turned and slowed the game down a little. He looked up for an option, spreading his arms as almost as if to say, ‘am I going to have to do this by myself?’

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Jordan Henderson then quickly sprung forward at the Chelsea attacker. Hazard stopped almost entirely, squaring up the Liverpool captain. After offering a glimpse of the ball, Henderson took the bait and threw a leg at it. Hazard of course knew what was coming, and with a quick drop of the shoulder he was away, an extraordinary show of acceleration taking him around the man with ease.

He was now running fast at the centre of Liverpool’s defence. Ragnar Klavan and Alberto Moreno pushed out to try and stop the situation, but it was too late: Hazard played a defence-splitting pass to the onrushing Danny Drinkwater.

It was just a shame there was no finish to what surely would have been the assist of the season.

The entire sequence from when Hazard first picked up the ball to the Drinkwater chance was barely 10 seconds, but it summed up what a special player Hazard is. His low centre of gravity and the ability to give the opponent a glimpse of the ball, before quickly taking it away is unrivalled. When he is on form, he is the best player in the league and among the top five in the world.

The stats show the Belgian has stepped up his performance levels this season. He is producing more assists, more key passes, more shots, more dribbles. Despite beginning the season hampered by injury, he now has six goals and three assists in his last eight games.

Antonio Conte’s shift in formation from a 3-4-3 to a 3-5-2 is helping. Hazard now has less defensive responsibility and is positioned more centrally, meaning he is often more involved.

Removing the extra forward creates more pressure on Hazard to make things happen, but he is handling this with ease. Playing just behind Alvaro Morata, he has the freedom to drift anywhere across the pitch: a nightmare for defenders to deal with him.

It would be foolish to downplay the effect Hazard has on this Chelsea team. His ability to make something out of nothing is vital to the way Chelsea play, especially in big games. Chelsea usually sit deep and sacrifice a lot of the ball. When they do get it, they need to make it count and – more than not – Hazard delivers. He is one of the best at holding onto the ball and drawing fouls from the opposition, thus helping his team move up the pitch into attacking situations.

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If he keeps up these high performance levels for the rest of the season, he and the Blues will have a successful run.