The Unsolved Mystery Of Eden Hazard: Reviewing Chelsea vs. Everton

It's the 19th minute of the match against Everton, and Eden Hazard chases down the ball to the left of the box. He cuts inside two defenders, feet scampering like padded, dextrous, feline paws. With only the most cursory of glances towards the goal, he fires a low, curling shot past Maarten Stekelenburg, and sees it nestle in the back of the net. Just under an hour later, Hazard repeats the trick at the other end of the pitch, this time exchanging a stylish one-two with Pedro before running hard at the defence and slotting away once more.

This is the Eden Hazard that we all know, and perhaps love. This is the Eden Hazard who scored 19 goals over the course of the 2014/15 season, tearing apart defences time and time again and inspiring Chelsea to their first title since 2010. This is the Eden Hazard who has been linked with an illustrious move to Real Madrid, touted as a future Ballon d'Or winner and identified as a player with the talent and quality to one day be the best in the world. This is the true Eden Hazard, the real Eden Hazard and, like it or not, it looks like he's back to his best self.

All of this begs the question, then: what the actual fuck did Jose Mourinho do to Hazard last season? What can he have said to his talismanic midfielder that either dented his confidence so much, or made him resent his manager so badly, that he essentially ceased to play football for around nine months of his professional career? Hazard has nabbed seven goals in 14 appearances this campaign, which is one more than he scored in 43 games over the course of 2015/16. Whatever happened to him under Mourinho's tenure, it seems the trauma has only just worn off.

Whether or not Mourinho actually crushed Hazard's spirit, or pissed him off to the point that he decided to go on general strike, it can surely be no coincidence that the arrival of a new manager has coincided with a resurgence in his performances on the pitch. The upturn in form has been too pointed, too marked, for it to be nothing more than an arbitrary change in fortune. Hazard is a mighty phoenix, rising from the ashes of Mourinho's charred and smouldering Chelsea reign. Indeed, the revitalisation of Hazard's game only heightens the sense of mystery around Chelsea's catastrophic title defence last term. What did Jose Mourinho do to those players? What egregiously hurtful shit did he say to them? Christ, maybe it's better we don't know.