Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard has said that he is determined to make up for his lack of form last season that was one of the contributing factors to the Blues finishing tenth in the Premier League last season.
The 25-year-old was Chelsea’s Player Of The Season during the club’s title winning campaign of 2014-2015 but grossly under-performed last time out. Indeed some Chelsea fans turned on the player when José Mourninho was sacked in December, suspecting that he had deliberately under-performed in order to get the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ out of Stamford Bridge.
The Belgium international scored just four goals last season, with his first not coming until the 23rd of April when the Blues played Bournemouth. He notched up fourteen goals in the 2014-2015 campaign, a return that earned him the Player Of The Year award from the club.
For the forthcoming season, however, Hazard is keen to make amends for his underwhelming display of last year and help the Blues mount a title challenge. He said, “I want to be the best, like I was two years ago. We’ve got to show to everyone we’re Chelsea, we’re big players, a big team and we didn’t finish in a good place last season. No we want to do better and win the Premier League”.
Hazard enjoyed an upturn in form towards the end of last season, scoring an excellent solo goal in Chelsea’s game against Liverpool at Anfield. He also played well for Belgium during this summer’s European Championships, though he couldn’t do enough to stop the Red Devils getting knocked out by Wales in the quarter-final stage of the competition.
The midfielder’s 2015-2016 campaign was interrupted with injury and tainted by rumours of his likely departure to the likes of Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain this summer. The player insists he’s happy at Stamford Bridge, though, and is hoping for an injury free season under new boss Antonio Conte.
Hazard is determined to ensure that his performance last season is not his final one in a Blue shirt. He said, “I said after a season like that, I wanted to stay because I didn’t want to finish like this. If I must leave Chelsea one day, I hope I can finish well here and be a champion again. I played a very bad season. It’s easy to say now I was tired. Even when I’m not at the maximum level I want to play well. It’s not easy to play with a small injury in England as the game is very difficult. But this season I’m ready”.