How Eden Hazard mauled Sunderland

Eden Hazard scores Chelsea’s third goal against Sunderland

One man made the difference at the Stadium of Light last night, as Chelseaedged Sunderland 4-3 in a seven goal thriller: Eden Hazard. After the game, Sunderland head coach Gus Poyet conceded to the Sunderland Echo that ‘Eden Hazard was unplayable.’

Hazard, whose performance was also described by Blues boss Jose Mourinho as “amazing,” scored two blistering goals -making him the Blue’s top league goalscorer with six – and helped set up another as Chelsea remained in Arsenal’s slipstream in the race for the title, sitting just four points behind the Gunners.

Sunderland tried everything to suppress the threat posed by the young Belgian. Poyet’s side man-marked him, and even put two and three up against him, but there was seemingly nothing they could do.

The Official Chelsea website reports how Mourinho, who doesn’t often single out players for praise, lauded Hazard’s contribution.

‘It was his best performance playing for me. We know about the talent, but for the first time under me he showed ambition from the first to the last minute,’ he said.

‘He has great talent, but sometimes he can disappear from games. Today, he was fantastic – getting the ball, attacking defenders, shooting.’

This performance was undoubtedly the Belgium international’s best of the season, and perhaps his greatest in a Chelsea shirt. With a performance score of 176 points, there can be no debate regarding his selection as man of the match, he outclassed every other player on the field.

Hazard gave the home defence huge problems throughout the entire 90 minutes. He created the chance for Frank Lampard‘s equaliser and netted his seventh and eighth goals of the season, as well as making other opportunities for his team mates and testing Vito Mannone in the Black Cats goal with three further shots.

The Belgian has the full set of tools to mature into a sublime player. He is a great passer, a huge creative talent and has a fantastic left foot as well as a fantastic right. He also has the perfect build for his position – his low centre of gravity makes him extremely agile and allows him to run with the ball at lightning pace.

In this match, he registered five attempts in total with 80% hitting the target. He also created four chances, one of which resulted in Lampard’s goal. In total he played a successful 48 passes from an attempted 53 – a 91% success rate.

That being said, his two goals were just as impressive as the statistics. His first was powered home from 20 yards, beating Mannone all ends up after he had skipped past Phil Bardsley and Craig Gardner.

He topped this with his second of the night and his eighth of the campaign. Hazard burst down the left wing and was double marked in an impossibly tight spot. He played a wonderful one-two with Lampard, whose back-heeled pass fell perfectly into his path, and the Belgian did the rest, cutting inside John O’Shea to hit another unstoppable shot.

Sunderland’s defenders endured a torrid night, as Hazard completed 12 succesful take-ons. Emanuele Giaccherini in particular proved to be a glutten for punishment, on a night that saw Hazard glide past him on five different occassions. Gardner succumbed to Hazard’s take-on talent three times, whilst Bardsley was gone past twice.

This performance will be hopefully be the first of many for Hazard. He is such an exciting young talent and was simply incredible in this match. Sunderland’s defenders had all kinds of problems keeping tabs on him throughout the game and, considering three markers at once could not stop him, he was clearly as dangerous as he looked. He dominated the left side of midfield and his performance will has earned him huge praise from Mourinho – a tough task. I look forward to seeing more from Hazard this season and hopefully he can continue to excite on a weekly basis.