Eden Hazard: Following his penalty miss shocker, how bad has Chelsea's 'best player' been this season?
The Belgian's performances have coincided with a crisis at Stamford Bridge - but what do the numbers tell us about his displays?
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Your support makes all the difference.Chelsea went some way to fixing the crisis that has engulfed the club following their dreadful start to the season with a reassuring win in the Champions League last night.
However, despite the 4-0 scoreline against Maccabi Tel-Aviv, it wasn't a good night for everyone.
Eden Hazard, Chelsea's Player of the Year for the last two seasons, took a horrible penalty early in the match that went flying over the bar. The Belgian appeared to be trying a cocky, no-look-at-the-ball approach. In retrospect, an unwise approach.
The miss compounded what has been a poor start to the campaign for last year's Premier League player of the year. But just how far below par has the Chelsea player been? We took a look at the stats to find out...
Hazard is yet to score in five Premier League games, last night's Champions League tie nor the Community Shield at the start of the season. When tacked on to the end of last season, he's gone without a goal for 11 club games. In the Premier League last season, he scored 14 times and his longest barren run was 7 games.
That might have something to do with the 24-year-old's shot accuracy. Last season he hit the target with 59 per cent of his attempts, yet this term that figure is way down at 40 per cent.
Hazard, renowned for his mazy runs, has been trying less dribbles this term with 5.4 a game. Last term that figure was at 7.4. It's also seeing him fouled less often. Last season he drew 2.1 a game, but this term he's be unfairly stopped 1.4 times each game.
Whilst the majority of Hazard's stats have shown a downturn, his pass accuracy has remained almost unchanged, increasing by 1 per cent on last season's 87 per cent accuracy. He's also been creating more chances in the Premier League, with 3.4 a game so far this campaign. When Chelsea won the title last term, his 9 assists over 38 games saw him clock up 2.4 a match.
Prior to the start of the season, Jose Mourinho said Hazard could join Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as a player recognised as being at the very peak of the game. The stats from this season suggest he's only slipped further behind.
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