Sunderland must be wary of Chelsea's Eden Hazard

Chelsea’s 3-1 victory over Southampton was one of their most impressive performances, at least in the second half as they responded to going a goal behind early on. Juan Mata and Demba Ba, both peripheral so far this season were excellent whilst Ramires was the driving force behind the Chelsea revival. One player whose performance went slightly under the radar, though, was Eden Hazard.

The stats do not show Hazard having one of his best games but he was an important part in the Chelsea cog. He offered an outlet on the wings and he made plenty of intelligent runs.

So far this season Hazard has scored four goals in the league and has registered two assists. He’s created more chances than anyone else at Stamford Bridge whilst only club stalwarts John Terry and Frank Lampard have a higher Performance Score. When Jose Mourinho re-joined the club for his second spell in charge he name dropped Hazard in his first press conference as the player he would look too to take his game to the next level.

On Wednesday evening the Blues travel north to face Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. The Black Cats’ home turf has been a happy hunting ground for Chelsea in recent years, they’ve won their last eight visits to Sunderland in the league.

Sunday was the first time Juan Mata played the full 90 minutes since September so he may not get a second game in that space of time whilst Oscar had to go off injured. That means that of Chelsea’s attacking triumvirate Hazard is one definite to start and he will be key to the Blues’ chances of victory.

He’ll be up against Phil Bardsley who has come back into the set-up at Sunderland following the appointment of Gus Poyet. He scored the goal that sealed the victory over Manchester City and Chelsea will have to be extremely careful that they don’t go the same way as their title rivals.

Bardsley isn’t the quickest defender and facing Hazard will be an extremely tricky test for him. The Belgian is one of the most dangerous players when he is running with the ball and if Chelsea can get him running at Bardsley he can cause real problems for the Sunderland back line. With his pace, inventiveness and dribbling ability the midfielder will be the key man for Chelsea.

The other thing that the Sunderland defence will have to watch is Hazard’s roaming runs. He loves to cut inside and he’ll have more room to do so if Mata doesn’t play. That’ll leave a lot of space for Cesar Azpilicueta to exploit and he’ll be another problem for Sunderland. If the Black Cats can stop Hazard they may go some way to stopping Chelsea.