Eden’s Hazard for the blues

Eden Hazard had the world at his feet in the last two Premier League seasons. In 2013, he was named the Professional Footballers’ Association Players’ young player of the year — an award given to the young performing talents in English Premier League. In April this year, he took the PFA Best Player of the Year award for playing a pivotal role in Chelsea winning the league.

Fast forward eight months, and everything seems to go wrong for the Belgian talisman. Apart from losing form, Hazard is now considered a traitor by Chelsea’s fans for playing his part in Jose Mourinho’s sacking.

Only few would argue with the fact that Hazard’s creativity on field was one of the major reasons for Chelsea clinching the 2014-15 league title comprehensively. Mourinho was so impressed with Hazard that he rated him alongside Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. At that time, given the season he was having, the statement didn’t feel like an exaggeration. But things have drastically changed. Inconsistency is what defines Hazard now.

The 24-year-old was not much of a scorer. His last goal for the club came in the month of May against Crystal Palace. But what Hazard lacked in scoring, he compensated with his ability to create chances. Last season, Hazard created a mind-boggling 99 of them for his team. His trickery turns and thrusting runs on the flanks were an opposition’s nightmare. On his day, he could completely turn the game on its head.

All the creativity which made him the player he was, has now evaporated and he now looks like a pale shadow of the player he used to be. A turnaround such as this within months is a major concern for the player, team and the Premiership itself.

Reasons for his sharp downfall can be attributed to many factors. It is quite imperative that Hazard is suffering from burn-out issues this season. Mourinho’s reluctance to rotate his players has come at the cost of Hazard’s exhaustion.

And then there was this much hyped fallout with Mourinho which might also be a reason. It is now an acceptable fact that Mourinho did lose the support of Chelsea’s important players, Hazard being one of them. Chelsea end the year on a dismal note.

They need to turn things quickly in order to avoid relegation battle and much of it depends on Hazard getting back to his best.