After his great performance vs Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea star Eden Hazard dismisses claims from his father according to whom the Belgian player rejected a new contract with the Blues because of Real Madrid.
“My dad says some bad things,” Hazard said. “I talked with him, no worries. I’m focused with Chelsea. ‘I’ve got two years contract left and I’m happy here. Like I said 10 times before, I want to finish this year and then we’ll see. But I’m happy here.”
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte analysed the Blues win at Brighton and, of course, he noticed his team improved respect to the performances of the last month, where they barely scored a goal:
“[It was] A good game, a good result for us. In the last period, we didn’t score a lot. Instead today we scored four goals, we created other chances to improve the final result,” the Italian claimed.
“We kept another clean sheet, which is very important for us, despite Brighton creating chances to score. Before the game, a lot of people had a lot of apprehension for suspensions and injuries.
“But, during the game, we showed a great personality to be a team. We started the game very well, scored twice quickly with good combinations between our strikers. This is very important and we must be happy for this.”
Speaking about man of the match Eden Hazard, he said:
“Eden Hazard scored twice. For us, it’s important Hazard, Willian and Moses all score. But, from tomorrow, every single player that scored today has to forget he scored and must try and score again against Arsenal.
“This is the most important thing: to be happy for today’s performance but, from tomorrow, to think about another important game against Arsenal, another important situation to try to help the team to win.”
Then, his answer to the people who said that Chelsea were in a “crisis”:
“Whoever said this has to pay attention to the stats. We’re unbeaten in 14 games. It’s normal that the press try to see the negative aspect and don’t see the positives.
“But this team, with many problems, are unbeaten in 14 games in every competition. This means means we are performing important work with these players to win in this way, despite five players less: Fabregas, Drinkwater, Courtois, two suspensions in Pedro and Morata. Despite this, we won 4-0.
“That means that every player deserves his chance, and every player has to fight to play. Now we have to continue in this way. I’m pleased with the responses of all the players today. You could see on our bench there were Charly Musonda and Sterling and Ampadu, the present and future of Chelsea.
“The club has committed to work with the young players to improve, and I’m doing this. Christensen is only 21 and playing every game. We are doing an important job for this club. We have to continue in this way. Every player today showed a great responsibility.
“For this reason, I’m very happy because every player felt this responsibility. To grow in this aspect is very important for us.”
Conte also explained why Danny Drinkwater was ruled out of the game:
“Danny had a kick on his ankle in the game against Norwich. He’s not so lucky this season (with injuries).
“He’s having many problems from the start of the season. I hope to recover him very quickly.”
About the two penalties that referee Jon Moss didn’t concede to Brighton when the score was still 0-2, Conte said:
“I think that, in England, seeing a penalty is not simple. It’s very difficult to see a referee whistling for a penalty. You can see what happened in the last game against Norwich.
“In this league, there is this type of valuation for one team, for another team. I don’t know because I didn’t see these two situations, so I can’t give an evaluation about this.
“But, at the same time, I can tell you that the new system – if we learn to use it very quickly – can help a lot to avoid big mistakes if there are big mistakes. This system will be very important for every team because, in this way, you won’t have doubts.”
Eden Hazard was, without any doubt, the man who led Chelsea go get the three points against Brighton and Hove Albion today.
The Belgian put his name on the score-sheet for the first time today after 3′ with a masterclass finishing on a ball deflected by a Brighton defender after Moses assist.
Hazard himself and another Belgian, Michy Batshuayi, were the protagonists of the 2-0 play after only three minutes, well finished by Willian. Only 6′ and the Blues were already 3-0 up.
But instead of surrendering Brighton had a great reaction and tried to level the score, giving Willy Caballero the chance to show his skills.
The Argentine goalkeeper also took a huge risk with a tackle on Ezequiel Schelotto, surely the best among the Seagulls today, that could have cost a penalty against to Chelsea.
Brighton, indeed, didn’t have the best of luck today and hit also the post in the beginning of the second half.
After another great save by Caballero, Willian hit the post as well but some minutes later, at 77′, Eden Hazard scored his second goal of the game, sealing it with thirteen minutes to go.
Before the final whistle there was also a moment of glory for Victor Moses, who netted the ball for the 4th goal of Chelsea.
In this moment the Blues are second in the table with 50 points, reaching Manchester United who are playing Burnley away in some minutes.
Chelsea star Eden Hazard reached an important personal milestone after scoring the opener against Brighton and Hove Albion today: in fact, the 27-year-old secured the 100th goal of his career.
The Belgium international later reached also goal 101, after sealing the game with the 3-0, for a total of 65 Premier League goal for Chelsea.
Hazard reached three figures having found the net 36 times for Lille in Ligue 1.
Everything happened in three minutes, between 3′ and 6′, when first Eden Hazard and then Willian beat Matthew Ryan with two fantastic finishings. Therefore, Chelsea are leading 2-0 on Brighton at half-time.
The Blues were in control most of the first part but the Seagulls complained for a couple of tackles on Ezequiel Schelotto in the box – the first one by Willy Caballero and the second one by Tiemoué Bakayoko– that could have given two penalties, but referee Jon Moss didn’t concede them.
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is facing emergency in his squad with both Thibaut Courtois and Danny Drinkwater forced out in the last 24 hours for injury after losing Gary Cahill and Cesc Fabregas during the week both for minor injuries and Alvaro Morata and Pedro both under suspension after the red cards in the FA Cup clash against Norwich on Wednesday night.
Brighton & Howe Albion manager Chris Hughton said his team had more chances to earn some points tomorrow vs Chelsea than they had when the two sides met at Stamford Bridge recently.
“It will be a difficult game and anyone playing against one of the top six teams wouldn’t say any different. Hughton said. “Irrespective of their current situation, these are the challenges you have to look forward to. We knew we’d more likely get points at home than on the road – we’ve had some difficulties on the road and this is now our next opportunity. When you’re playing a top side, you have to take it for what it is now and look at the quality they have – not their form or absentees because our approach would still not be any different. We must focus on who they have available rather than who they don’t. They won the title last season, so all our preparations have to be on the quality they have. There isn’t a game we go into where we don’t think we can get a result – we performed well in the first half on Boxing Day and limited their chances. They scored early in the second half and raised their game, but we will go into Saturday on home soil in exactly the same way we always do here – to try and get a result. Whatever system we play it’s about responsibility and performance on the day, whoever takes to the field. It will all be about trying to stop their qualities and also put in a performance ourselves where we can get something from the game at a good level.”
Chelsea striker Izzy Brown, on loan to Brighton and Hove Albion in this campaign, is out for season after a knee ligament injury occurred in the FA Cup clash against Crystal Palace.
The 21-year-old is now expected to return to his parent club where he will undergo surgery, before a programme of rehabilitation.
Brown commented on his Instagram profile:
“Not the news I wanted to hear,” he wrote on his post.
“I will come back fitter and stronger and hopefully be ready for the new season.
“Thank you to everyone at Brighton for the love and support they showed towards me, the fans, the staff, & all the players. I’ve met some amazing people here & these memories will be with me forever.”
Spanish striker Alvaro Morata opened the score on Boxing day vs Brighton at Stamford Bridge and today he spoke to the Blues official website expressing his respect for his team-mates and saying the race for the Premier League title is not closed yet.
“It was very nice to get another goal. Not only Cesar and I but the entire team have a good understanding,” – Morata said -“It’s great to be playing here at Chelsea and playing with Cesar,’ said our summer signing. ‘He is an exceptional person and an exceptional player. We worked well in the second half to earn the win. It was a very important victory for us like every match will be for the rest of the season. It’s difficult, but we’ll do what we can. It will also be difficult for City to keep winning so many games. What we have to do is to pick up all the points available by winning every game. If we win, we can hope that they lose, because that is all we can do.”
Yesterday vs Brighton, Cesar Azpilicueta provided his sixth assists for Alvaro Morata.
The Spanish defender hopes to have another good performance and to finish the year with another win on Saturday at Stamford Bridge vs Stoke City.
“What I see is that every game is a difficult game to win,” – Azpilicueta told Chelsea TV. – “Apart for Manchester City, every team is having problems. We need to fight and to keep pushing. We have another game against Stoke, our last game of the year, and it’s important to keep winning and getting points. We must try to go as far as we can.”
Spanish striker Alvaro Morata yesterday helped Chelsea scoring an header at the beginning of the second half of the Premier League game vs Brighton.
Then, Morata himself spoke to the club official website saying he is happy for the win and for how things are going in his first season at Stamford Bridge.
“Brighton is a very hard team, they defend very well but in the second half we scored early and then it was easier for us after that,” – Morata said – “but Brighton played a hard match and it is always like this in the Premier League. It is hard to win every game and we are happy how we played. We could not make any goals in the first half and we needed to keep working and we needed a good second half, and we did one.”.
The Spanish striker also had a thought on his team-mates, in particular Marcos Alonso who scored Chelsea‘s second goal yesterday.
“I am happy too for Marcos, he is a very great person and very good player and I am very happy for all the team that we got the three points. I need to say thanks to everyone, the Spanish players in the team because they helped me to settle well at Chelsea and in London. It is a little bit different in Spain [at Christmas], I had holidays and in Italy too, but I am really enjoying this Christmas time playing and the most important thing is for the supporters, if we win they are happy.”
