Eden Hazard eyes strong end to Chelsea's season

Premierleague.com 21/03/2013

Upon arriving in the Barclays Premier League, Eden Hazard made an immediate impact. The Belgian set up both Chelsea goals in his first match in the Barclays Premier League, away to Wigan Athletic, before winning a penalty in the next match at home to Reading and scoring against Manchester City.
Since then it was inevitable that his form would dip a little in his debut season here but, not for the first time, March is proving to be a good month for the Belgian.
After spurring Chelsea’s fightback at Old Trafford in the FA Cup quarter-final with Manchester United, he helped to inspire his side past Steaua Bucharest in the UEFA Europa League, before scoring the second goal in the 2-0 win over West Ham United in the Barclays Premier League at the weekend.
“My confidence is really up at the moment and I feel good in myself,” Hazard told the official Chelsea website. “It's quite weird because, historically, March always seems to be the best time of the year for me.
“Last year I got player of the month in Ligue 1, and a couple of years ago I won the same award. I don't know why but it seems as though things come good for me at this time of the season.”

Hazard has hardly had a minute to pause for thought since joining in the summer. Of Chelsea’s 53 matches this season, across five competitions, he has played in 50, only missing three through suspension, something that has surprised him.
“I didn't expect to be playing in every game,” he said. “Thank goodness I haven't been injured so far.
“I have been on the bench on a few occasions but, of course, it's been good for me. We know we have a strong group of players and a great team. The manager has other choices because in attack we have a number of players who can make a difference and decide games on their own.”
On a personal level, Hazard is relatively satisfied with how his first season in the Premier League has gone, but acknowledges the disappointments, notably the premature exit from the UEFA Champions League.
“You have to reserve judgement until the end of the season,” he said. “You can't summarise or sum up until everybody knows exactly what's been won.
“But it was a big disappointment going out of the Champions League so early, particularly as the same thing happened to me with Lille last season, when we were eliminated at the group stage. It's such an important competition and that's why I feel we could have achieved a bit more this season.
“We're on the right path to qualify for next season's tournament, though, and if we do we have enough quality players at the club to go a long way in it. The ultimate objective is to go as far as you can in the Champions League.”

During his first season at Stamford Bridge, Hazard says he has learnt a lot by working with his team-mates.
“It's great and it's a real pleasure to play alongside players of that calibre,” he said. “As a young, developing player myself, it's brilliant for me because you learn playing alongside these guys and you develop your own game in the process.
“In terms of players such as John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole, you're talking about some of the best players in the world. Even if you're not playing alongside them, just watching them in training or during a match is great in terms of what you can learn.
“Training alongside those players every day helps you learn all the time. They tell you what you need to know out on the pitch and they instil the qualities which are needed.”
Hazard is one of nine members of the Belgian national team in the Barclays Premier League, with Mousa Dembele, Jan Vertonghen (both Tottenham Hotspur), Thomas Vermaelen (Arsenal), Marouane Fellaini, Kevin Mirallas (both Everton), Romelu Lukaku (West Bromwich Albion), Christian Benteke (Aston Villa), Simon Mignolet (Sunderland) and Vincent Kompany (Manchester City). The playmaker is happy to have familiar faces nearby and believes it is benefiting everybody.

“We have a crop of players who are all suddenly moving to England at the same time, and we are all roughly in the same age group,” he said. “It's good because we're creating a Belgian culture in the Premier League, and it's good for the players themselves to be playing over here. It's a two-way thing because the players benefit from the experience we get in England, but the Premier League also benefits from having us all here.”
Sunday's goal against West Ham was Hazard's 12th of the campaign, and eighth in the Barclays Premier League, but it is not the player’s favourite. “There have been one or two nice ones, but the goal I scored against Manchester United at Old Trafford [in the FA Cup] probably stands out most,” he said. “It's always good to score at such a nice stadium and it was an important goal as well to get us back in the game.”
After the international break, when Belgium are due to play the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia away and then at home, Chelsea enter a run of matches in quick succession, with four games in eight days. With two trophies to play for and bid to secure UEFA Champions League football for next season, Hazard is targeting a positive end to an intense campaign.
“It's been a good season for me so far but I could have done better in certain situations,” he said. “There have been good moments and bad moments, both for me individually and the team, but hopefully we can finish the season strongly.
“We're still on the right track to win both the FA Cup and Europa League, and we'll be doing everything in our power to make sure that happens because big clubs can only be judged to have had a successful season if they win one or, if they're lucky, several, trophies.”

Electric Eden: Chelsea star Hazard is on the road to becoming the next Ronaldo or Messi

Dailymail.co.uk 17/03/2013

Eden Hazard can be the next superstar. The next Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.
But not in the same way that plenty of youngsters are slapped with these tags before they sign their first professional deal or pick up their first pair of hi-viz name-embroidered boots.
It's a different matter entirely because Hazard is halfway there already. And maybe more than that.


He is at a club that has been crying out for a player in his mould since Arjen Robben left for Real Madrid. A player as fast as he is smart.
Thus the Belgian has been guaranteed a starting berth in the side and the Premier League can and should become his playground.
It certainly seemed like it was on Sunday afternoon, with Hazard running riot against West Ham.
Admittedly Sam Allardyce's team seem to have lost their focus and are drifting along in mid-table, but they were truly terrorised by Hazard.
Had Ronaldo been wearing the No 17 and turned in the same performance - bar the fact that Hazard is more nimble and less strong - he would be praised for a display of typical metronomic quality.
His goal was superb. Juan Mata, on the same wavelength as Hazard, laid on a gentle lofted pass over a defender to find his team-mate on the edge of the box.
Hazard controlled the ball on his chest and then like lightning had passed two defenders before shooting with his left foot inside the near post, giving Jussi Jaaskelainen no chance.
Earlier in the game he had electrified Stamford Bridge by turning superbly despite the attentions of several West Ham players, nutmegging an opponent and then racing down to the penalty area. His rabona cross towards Demba Ba drew gasps, even though it didn't find its target.
And it was Hazard's careful, delicious ball in to the box that found Frank Lampard in space to head home his 200th goal for Chelsea.
That so much talk after the game was about Hazard rather than Lampard's astonishing milestone is credit to his performance.
Lampard himself said after the game: 'Eden is 22. He has got the world at his feet and he can handle the pressure because he is that good.

His ability and speed off the mark and the way he is able to turn on a sixpence is what all great attacking players have and he's got it in abundance.
'(Gianfranco) Zola did it throughout his career while Eden's at a relatively early part of his career but what he is showing now are glimpses that he can be in that bracket and be one of the top players in the world.
'He is very laid back, a great character and not too much bothers him by the look of it. That's the way he plays and it reflects in his game.
'I hope he carries on doing it because he's an absolute pleasure to play with.'
Hazard's versatility - he can play on the left, right, behind the striker or upfront - is similar to that of Ronaldo and Messi and his style of play falls somewhere between the two great footballing rivals of our age.
The Portuguese and the Argentine have developed from playing in wider positions to being the focal point of their team.


Their goalscoring potential was unlocked after they were allowed to play how they wanted, although Hazard still needs to score more frequently to prove he should be allowed to roam free.
In other areas he is more than a match for the La Liga duo, his control, touch, balance are perfect and his ability to turn so quickly and sharply is breathtaking.
The more he plays with Mata and Oscar the better he will become, because their ability and vision will encourage him to take more chances, make more daring runs, play trickier balls.
He even seems to be taking on more responsibility defensively, with Pat Nevin pointing out his off-the-ball work on Match of the Day 2.
So far so good. So if he's got all that, why isn't he as good as Messi or Ronaldo? What are his failings?


In November, in the aftermath of Roberto Di Matteo's sacking, Hazard was a target in the Chelsea dressing room for his contribution, or lack of it.
His team-mates were unhappy with his workrate and although he started with a blitz of goals and assists after his summer move from Lille, his form quickly dropped off and he went on a barren run.
His first games under Rafa Benitez were a struggle. Hazard was not alone, the whole team played badly. But it is extremely rare that Messi or Ronaldo are dampened, even if their team's overall display lacks spark.
They drag their teams out of the mire when required.
Of course, you could point to Hazard's recent last-minute strike against Sparta Prague in the Europa League home leg as an example of this.


But if Hazard is to match Messi or Ronaldo, we need to be surprised when he doesn't provide a winning contribution.
Goals are the big difference between the three. Hazard has more assists than either, 15 in all competitions (excluding Club World Cup) compared with Messi's 12 or Ronaldo's six.
This might not be a surprise, given that Hazard has been fielded in a supporting role on the flanks - also contributing to their disproportionate goal tallies.
Ronaldo has 40 and Messi has 51. Hazard, by comparison has 12.
What he needs is consistency. As recently as Chelsea's game away against Steaua Bucharest, he was silenced by the overpowering atmosphere and desire of the opposition.
He seemed weak when harried, he was negated, anonymous.
Again you can point to the team being subdued as a whole, but he is a key part of it and therefore should be held accountable, despite his age.


Eight of his 12 goals have come at home and he certainly has the adulation of the Matthew Harding Stand, who sing his song more frequently with each passing month. Perhaps he needs to toughen up.
The problems he seemed to be suffering back at the start of winter have dispersed. Lampard's kind words were mirrored in spirit by the celebration of his team-mates at Hazard's strike, chasing him in to the corner to embrace him.
Mata is marvellous, the heartbeat of this Chelsea side and their best player this term, but Hazard has the rare blockbuster factor that could propel him to the stars.


Who else has it? Neymar, arguably. Not many others.
His temperament was questioned during the transfer saga, with accusations of arrogance and petulance blazing a trail before him on the way to England.
However, bar one bizarre incident with THAT Swansea ballboy, he has been well behaved.
Many argue that for £32million, Chelsea have got nothing more than they should expect. And if Hazard has hit the ceiling of his ability, they would be correct.
But should he continue along this trajectory, he is destined to shatter the shackles that bind mere mortals and join the elite duo.

The Eden Hazard ballboy row: a silly footballer and a silly boy

Guardian.co.uk 24/01/2013

It would be wrong to demonise the Chelsea player as a flint-hearted bully for trying to get the ball from a 17-year-old who knew exactly what he was doing

Apologies in advance if any of this sounds harsh but there was a point, before Eden Hazard was shown the real thing, when it would have been no surprise if Charlie Morgan had bravely staggered to his feet and started waving an imaginary red card towards the referee.
That doesn't mean Hazard was right to deliver the sharp little kick with which he tried to dislodge the ball from beneath the Swansea Cityballboy, even if it was a mix of naivety, impatience and silliness rather than anything genuinely malevolent. The basic fact – footballer kicks ballboy! – still represents something ignominious for Chelsea whatever the defence argument and however much the boy in question appears to have had a premeditated plan to annoy the hell out of Swansea's opponents.

They are, however, mitigating circumstances that should persuade the Football Association that it is probably better to leave it be rather than punishing Hazard any further than his automatic three-match ban for violent conduct.
Certainly this is not the story of some gnarled old professional booting a teary 11-year-old innocent. Charlie was not there because he had won a competition at school. He is 17, only five years younger than the Chelsea player, and sitting in a place surely more appropriate for children just coming out of that age when it is still acceptable to exchange milk teeth for pound coins.
The photograph on his Twitter account shows him clutching a can of Strongbow while his mate prefers Foster's. He is not a particularly big lad but still roughly the same size as Hazard and, plainly, he was willing to use every inch as he played dead on top of the ball instead of returning it the old-fashioned way. The Swansea Evening Post is calling him "a cult-hero" and, if he's not busy arranging a deal with a tabloid newspaper, one suspects Charlie might enjoy recounting the story to his mates this weekend, holding his ribs and pointing out where it hurts, much like Basil Fawlty used to reach for the old shrapnel wound.

Whatever the scale of thespianism, however, the bottom line is that Hazard was inviting trouble by kicking at the ball when he should have had the common sense to take a step back and point out to the referee what was happening. Various footballers have spoken out on his behalf, citing some form of teenage entrapment, and they would be right, to a degree, but Rafael Benítez's view on the matter was pretty accurate. They were both in the wrong, Chelsea's manager said. Charlie, the director's son who got the job as a family perk, thought he had the right to try to influence a sporting event watched by millions of people. Hazard, the professional who should have known better, let him do just that.

The irony here is both delicious and dismaying: a Premier League footballer sent off for kicking a ballboy (deliberately or not) who seems a dab hand in the art of time-wasting and exaggerating injury and who almost certainly learned these tricks from – that's right – watching the Premier League.
There was a time when a ballboy's basic duties were simple: get the ball and return it to the nearest player as quickly as possible. Very often that boy or girl would be so young they would have to use both hands to carry it. At times you would see them make a nervous, unco-ordinated attempt to catch the ball as it dropped from the skies. The crowd might even cheer a successful catch.

What happens now – not everywhere, but enough places for it to be a definite pattern – is very different. Rules have been put in place. Not official rules, but everyone is drilled with the same instructions. Ballboys are ball-teens now. They might be given towels if the pitch is wet and told to give the ball a quick dry if it is a throw-in to the home side. If it's the opposition, don't bother – keep the ball greasy, roll it back slowly rather than throw it. Don't worry if it's a few feet short, as long as it breaks the opposition's momentum. Neil Warnock's teams, particularly Sheffield United, have traditionally been very good at this – or bad, depending on where you stand.
But it's a common trend. "You tell the people who are instructing the ballboys that if you are winning, don't give the ball back quickly," Glenn Hoddle admitted during his television analysis of Wednesday's match. "That's your home advantage, in a way."
Charlie, it turns out, has been sitting by the touchline at Swansea's home matches for the past six years. Which puts himself alongside Leon Britton in terms of long service. Is this a regular thing then? Are Swansea in on the act? Naturally, they deny it but Charlie doesn't half give himself away on his Twitter feed, describing himself before the match as the "king of ballboys" and saying he was "needed for time-wasting."

None of this excuses Hazard's own decision-making but, at the same time, let's not demonise him as a flint-hearted bully. He was trying to get the ball, which was his right bearing in mind Chelsea were losing 2-0 in a cup semi-final with 12 minutes of normal time remaining. He went about it the wrong way and, for that, he will be fined, suspended and embarrassed. What this case does not need is an FA inquiry or the involvement of South Wales Police, unless it's a criminal offence these days to land Chelsea with another load of embarrassing headlines. In which case half the dressing room would be banged up.
As for Charlie, he is old enough to be playing professional football but also at an age when the odd moment of immaturity can probably be expected. Whatever his local paper says, though, when he is older and wiser he might realise, perhaps, that his sudden piece of notoriety actually went a long way towards shifting the focus from what should have been a night of immense celebration for Swansea.
The club Charlie supports have never been to a final in their 100-year existence, yet the first question for Michael Laudrup in his post-match press conference was nothing to do with Wembley or what it felt like to beat the Champions League winners over two legs. It was about a silly footballer and a silly boy, both of whom are probably old enough to have known a little bit better.