3 things Chelsea did right in their 1-0 win against Manchester United

#1 Allowing Eden Hazard the freedom to roam

Chelsea v Manchester United - The Emirates FA Cup Final — Hazard had a fine outing

Antonio Conte gave Hazard the freedom to take to the attacking realms like he wanted in the absence of Pedro and Willian. Hazard used this as an opportunity to stay clear of the dogged Ander Herrera.

Hazard was on top of his game and he was slaloming past the United defenders who were always a yard or two short for pace. It was Hazard who schlepped Chelsea into a threatening position in the first half after catching Phil Jones flatfooted in his defensive half.

Jones' poor positional awareness let Hazard get past him and eventually led to him being fouled inside the area to give way for the one and only decisive moment of the game. Hazard slotted the ball home coolly from the spot.

It was perhaps the only notable chance that Chelsea created on the night. Olivier Giroud was not even in the picture.

The talismanic Belgian's pace and trickery helped run the clock out towards the end of the game as well as United's defenders were hesitant to go in for the tackle. This helped in buying Chelsea a lot of time.

Eden Hazard's importance in this Chelsea side cannot be understated and that is why the Blues will have to pull out every stop to make sure he stays at Stamford Bridge after this summer.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Alan John