The other night Chelsea’s Eden Hazard reached an important milestone for the Stamford Bridge club, registering a 63rd league goal since joining the club. Along with 37 assists that means he has now been directly involved in a century of Premier League goals.
Since his move from Lille in June 2012 the Belgium international has improved exponentially, quickly becoming an indispensable player for the Blues.
Joining the London club whilst Roberto Di Matteo was in charge he quickly adapted to the physicality of the Premier League, managing a modest nine goals in 34 league games during the 2012-13 campaign.
At the age of 21 Hazard still had a lot to learn and often fell into the trap of focusing on his individual role instead of keeping his eyes on the bigger picture and working for the team.
During Hazard’s debut campaign Chelsea finished third in the league, winning 22 games, picking up nine draws and registering seven defeats. There were numerous situations where the former Ligue 1 attacker could’ve played a pivotal role in helping Chelsea break the deadlock and convert more of those draws into wins by playing in teammates instead of going for goal himself.
After working under two managers in just 12 months Hazard quickly started to mature under the stewardship of Jose Mourinho.
During the time Mourinho was manager Hazard reached double figures in the league for successive seasons, demonstrating a greater confidence in his own ability to go past people as well as knowing when to utilize teammates.
In that second campaign whilst Mourinho was at the helm Hazard played an instrumental role in helping Chelsea win their first Premier League crown for five years.
However it is under current manager Antonio Conte where we are seeing the best version of the 26-year-old.
Last season Hazard recorded his best total with 16 league goals, playing to his strengths whilst also showing a versatility the likes of which we have not seen previously from him.
Similar to the current campaign he has shown excellent spatial awareness, consistently making the most of areas vacated thanks to his teammates occupying the opposition. This has subsequently presented Hazard with more opportunities to use his trickery and speed in order to fashion more goal-scoring opportunities for him and Chelsea.
Whilst he might’ve had most of these qualities in abundance during the start of his Chelsea career it is Conte’s system which has helped uncover his full potential.
The Italian has made full use of wing-backs which has given Hazard more room to operate in between the lines. In addition the midfield duo of N’Golo Kante and Cesc Fabregas have further complemented him, in particular the latter who has the expert vision to always find Hazard and set him on his way.
This in turn has given the Belgian supreme confidence to freely roam just in front of the midfield, constantly looking for that half a yard he needs to unlock opposition defences. You only need to look at each of the four league games he has scored in this season to see that he focused just on that particular role, whilst also making good use of Alvaro Morata.
The main reason why we are now seeing Hazard consistently produce match-winning performances is because of how Conte has learned what system works best for him. Only once that was in place would we ever begin to see all of his excellent qualities on a regular basis.
