Can Chelsea's Eden Hazard rank among the greatest in the world?

Eden Hazard stats

With men behind the ball and visitors Chelsea struggling to carve out many clear cut opportunities, Steve Bruce may have been confident of another clean sheet at the KC Stadium as the sides approached the hour mark on Saturday.

It took some tidy build up play for the Blues to finally break the deadlock, and an exceptional strike from a man that they will be desperate to keep ahold of in the summer.

When Ashley Cole‘s neat flick found Eden Hazard on the edge of the box it was clear what the Belgian had in mind, though Hull were unable to do anything about it. Cutting inside, the recently turned 23-year old burst past two defenders, with a superb feint enough to fool Alex Bruce and give him the space and angle to fire a low shot into the bottom corner.

It was a moment of magic that have become common place in Hazard’s time with the London club of late, reportedly leading to interest from the money bags in PSG, keen to take the winger back to France.

It’s a rumour that will likely unnerve Chelsea fans, though manager Jose Mourinho was quick to suggest that Hazard’s value of £40m when signing for the club back in 2012 has at least doubled since. The worry is that the Ligue 1 outfit are one of few clubs in world football that can splash that sort of cash.

His goal at the weekend was his ninth of the campaign, equalling the tally from his first season at the Bridge and taking him three clear of Oscar, the side’s second top scorer in the league. When you throw in the fact that he also leads the way for the club in terms of assists (5) it’s abundantly clear why his WhoScored rating of 7.61 is the best in the side by a considerable margin.

Nevertheless that excellent figure still falls short of his final season in Lille (7.84), when Hazard netted a remarkable 20 league goals and picked up 16 assists – only Mesut Özil (17) managed more in 2011/12 in Europe’s top 5 leagues.

Mourinho’s claims that his value has soared quite so high are perhaps a little brash then, and were no doubt meant as a deterrent to keep suitors at bay, but Hazard is certainly proving himself on a grander stage now.

The time was right for him to move when he did, with WhoScored’s resident Ligue 1 expert Andy Brassellspeaking on the player’s development, “I think there is something in Mourinho demanding a bit more from him, as he did with Joe Cole, but Hazard has never been afraid of hard work. It’s fair to say that the step up was needed, as in his last half-season in France there was a sense that he was just too good for everyone else.”