Chelsea star Eden Hazard ‘doesn’t care’ about goals and stats – he wants to have fun
EDEN HAZARD views football as the beautiful game — not a numbers game.
A total of 51 appearances for Chelsea this season, 19 goals, 16 assists, 2,294 passes, 6.39 miles run per match. Yet Hazard could not care less.
He is the ultimate romantic who values his sport as an art form as much as a ruthless hunt for trophies.
This is what Chelsea and English football should miss more than anything if the most gifted player on the Stamford Bridge books is allowed to join Real Madrid in the summer.
There is a neat symmetry to the fact Hazard’s first trophy after joining the club was the Europa League in 2013 and it could be his last before bowing out after seven years.
Hazard, 28, said: “When I watch the TV it says, ‘Eden Hazard scored this’. But I don’t really care.
“I just want to enjoy myself on the pitch and play good.
“The best example is with Belgium. I played my best game against Brazil and I didn’t score or make an assist.
“I don’t think about scoring goals or assists. I just want to do my best.
“In terms of goals and assists this has been my best season but, for me, a good season is not whether I score 40 goals.
“I don’t think it is my best season overall to be fair. I don’t look at just statistics, I think I can still improve.
“You can always learn in football so the more you play, the more you learn. That is my philosophy here or in another country.
TROPHY DREAMS
“The main thing is to be happy on the pitch.”
Lifting the Europa League by beating Arsenal in Baku tomorrow would certainly put a smile on Chelsea faces.
Playmaker Hazard said: “This is a European competition so for me, for the club, for the manager, for the fans, it is something important.
“When you play a final you just want to win, you just want to bring the trophy home and celebrate that.
“When you play for Chelsea, at the start of the season people think about which trophy we can have at the end of May. So this one is an important one.
“We lost the EFL Cup final two months ago, so at the end of the season this is the trophy we can go for.”
The Belgian star is the most fouled player in the Premier League although he probably never bothers counting.
He has changed physically in his time at Stamford Bridge but the laid-back personality remains the same.
Hazard said: “As a person I didn’t change. I’m still the same.
When I came here I was a baby. Now I am a big man… I had a chance to sign for Manchester United, Man City, Tottenham. But I think I made the right decision.
Eden Hazard
“As a player I score more goals and have more experience. But I try to be the same as when I started. Then when I finish, I’ll try to be the same. I am more of a man, of course. When I came here I was a baby. Now I am a big man.
“To be fair, I was a little bit scared as when I came Didier Drogba had left and when you have Drogba in the team for sure you win a trophy.
“But at the end I played with top players.
“If you look at my seven years at Chelsea we did something amazing together. We won trophies together and I am just happy.
“I had a chance to sign for Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham. But I think I made the right decision.
“I spoke with the owner and I had Drogba and Joe Cole on the phone telling me this was the best club.”
Hazard admits that juggling the pursuit of happiness with chasing glory is tough.
He says his best season at Chelsea was 2014 when he won the first of his two Premier League trophies while working for Jose Mourinho.
His philosophy on football may not be the same as others who want Chelsea to gobble up trophies at the highest level — something that has eluded them this year.
‘WE HAVE IMPROVED’
Yet Hazard said: “It has been 50-50. Sometimes happy, sometimes not.
“But we finished in the top three of the Premier League and reached the EFL Cup final and the Europa League final.
“If we win the Europa League, the season can still be good. Not perfect, because you want to compete for the Premier League and FA Cup.
“But the way that we are playing, we have improved in the past two months. And if we go to Baku with a strong approach to the game we can do something good there.”
Upheaval is part of life at Chelsea and it can take its toll.
This season, they have trailed in the wake of rivals Manchester City and Liverpool.
And Hazard said: “When you look at City, they can play with 22 players. When you look at Chelsea, I think we can’t play with 22 players. So that is the difference.
“They did not change the manager in the summer and we changed the manager.
“Sometimes you need time to adapt with a new manager.
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“But if we want we can reach that level. We just need to train together, play together, lose together and then we will see.”
Meanwhile, N’Golo Kante flew to Azerbaijan with Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea squad but remains a serious injury doubt.
The midfielder, 28, will have his injured knee assessed at the last minute.
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