Chelsea: Eden Hazard proving himself more valuable than ever on his way out

If this is Eden Hazard’s final season at Chelsea, he is leaving on the highest of high notes. He has never been more valuable to the team, with every game reminding the club how irreplaceable he is while giving them nothing to begrudge his departure.

For professional tea leaf readers, Eden Hazard’s first goal against West Ham was as much a valediction as a golazo. Kristof Terreur, one of the most reliable journalists in all of football, believes Hazard pushed Real Madrid to initiate negotiations with Chelsea, saying Real would not have submitted a bid without Hazard’s direct prompting. The Telegraph is already looking beyond that first offer to how Chelsea may respond, and the calculations that will go into the Blues’ valuation of Hazard’s remaining year under contract.

If Hazard is, in fact, setting his transfer in motion now, he is making one final show of professionalism, loyalty and pure footballing joy on his way out the door.

Hazard has already matched his highest-scoring season at Chelsea with his 16th goal coming in the final minutes against West Ham. With six fixtures remaining, including three against teams in the bottom half for goals allowed, he could very well exceed his career-high single-season tally of 20 league goals, set at Lille in his last season before joining Chelsea.

Aside from the raw number of goals, Hazard’s production is more important than ever.

Hazard’s 16 goals are twice as many as Chelsea’s second-leading scorer, Pedro, has scored. Hazard has also doubled the goal output of Chelsea’s two nominal starting strikers: Alvaro Morata had five Premier League goals before he left, and Gonzalo Higuain has three. On current form, Morata is more likely to score again in England before his corpulent replacement.

This is the highest difference in relative and absolute terms between the Blues’ first- and second-leading scorers in the last 10 years. The next closest came in 2015/16, when Diego Costa’s 12 goals led Pedro’s seven.

In addition to his 16 goals, Hazard has 12 assists. This makes him responsible for 49% of Chelsea’s 57 goals. He has never accounted for more than 32% of the team’s Premier League offence in his previous six seasons.

Hazard’s goals are as impactful as ever, too. Five of Eden Hazard’s goals were go-ahead game-winners (i.e., goals that gave Chelsea a lead they did not relinquish, as opposed to the standard definition of game-winning goals, which may only be the winner post facto). The last two times Hazard had five or more go-ahead game-winning goals were 2016/17 and 2014/15: two seasons in which Chelsea won the title. He had seven in 2014/15, again, another total he could equal this season.

Obviously, these are all just the top-line statistics. This is not even getting into the secondary stats like dribbles (109, most in the league by a large margin), key passes (85, second in the league) or shots (83, seventh in the league). Nor are we looking at the qualitative impact he has on creating space by drawing defenders towards him, by dribbling through traffic to create passing and shooting lanes, and instilling excitement in Chelsea players and fans to go with the fear in opponents from his potential to do what he did on Monday.

Eden Hazard is leaving no doubt about his ability, professionalism or commitment in what could be his final months at Chelsea. He is ensuring his legacy not only for the long-term at Stamford Bridge, but the short-term, for that moment when – like Frank Lampard clad in sky blue – Hazard comes back to west London as un blanco and puts Chelsea on the receiving end. Because of how he is leaving, Chelsea fans will accept that moment with appreciation for what he did at Stamford Bridge for seven years.

They will not boo him and they will not resent him. His banner will still hang in the stands, even if he walks out the victor at Chelsea’s expense.

No one will ever accuse Hazard of having his body in London and his mind in Madrid, downing tools to accelerate his exit or slagging off his duties because he has nothing to lose. On the contrary. Hazard is making it as hard as possible for Chelsea to imagine life without him.