Eden Hazard - Atletico Madrid was the benchmark. Now it's time for him to really kick on this season.

As Chelsea travelled to Madrid this week, there had been plenty of opinion stating that it was time for Eden Hazard to deliver the level of performance we had witnessed in the Premier League. 

I personally was one of those voices posted up on here because although we had witnessed Hazard rip everyone to pieces in the Premier League for a few years now, he had never really done the same for us in Europe. We simply had not seen anywhere near the same performance levels from the Belgian.

Noting that Antonio Conte had set his side up to defend and break down the space between our three-man defence and midfield, Conte paid Hazard the perfect compliment by naming him in the side as an out-and-out number ten playing in support of Alvaro Morata. 

Eden Hazard was given the freedom to go and hunt the ball, freedom to roam in that position to influence the game in attacking areas and it worked to absolute perfection. 

As you can see in the video of his complete performance above, he caused Atletico Madrid, one of the most organised and defensively sound sides in Europe, all sorts of problems and they did not know how to deal with him.

The number ten role is the position that Hazard wants to play week-in, week out and on this display it would be difficult to prevent him from doing so. However, we have seen that he can also thrive as part of an attacking two playing in support of the striker given once again the freedom to roam and dictate our possession of the ball.

Alvaro Morata has spoken of Hazard after the victory in Madrid and was asked of the almost immediate understanding they have of each others games. He said:

"It’s not difficult playing with this kind of player. He’s one of the best three players in the world, and it’s easy for me to play with him."

Atletico Madrid has to be the benchmark for Hazard in the Champions League but also for Chelsea in the Premier League starting tomorrow. I expect Chelsea to stick with the three-man midfield of Bakayoko, Kante and Fabregas with Hazard playing in behind Morata. If Eden Hazard is able to influence the game as he did against Atletico Madrid he will without question cause them problems.

Make no mistake, after a delayed start to his season due to his bad ankle injury last summer, Eden Hazard is itching to really get going with his eyes firmly focused on Manchester City tomorrow evening.

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