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Chelsea – Liverpool combined XI

By David Cambridge

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 16: Adam Lallana of Liverpool and Eden Hazard of Chelsea during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on September 16, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 16: Adam Lallana of Liverpool and Eden Hazard of Chelsea during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on September 16, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 22: Eden Hazard of Chelsea in action during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Hull City at Stamford Bridge on January 22, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 22: Eden Hazard of Chelsea in action during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Hull City at Stamford Bridge on January 22, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images) /

Left forward: Eden Hazard

Quite why Eden Hazard’s form suffered such a dramatic downturn last season is one of the game’s great unsolved mysteries – if we were to take a guess, it probably had something to do with falling out with Mourinho, and perhaps the allure of a potential big money move to PSG – but he’s shown in the first half of this campaign that he’s still very much the same player that dragged Chelsea to title glory in 2015.

On his day, the Belgian is arguably the Premier League’s most gifted footballer alongside Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez, and it’s only his (relative) lack of goals that have prevented him from being mentioned in the same breath of some of the game’s truly great players. Perhaps those early comparisons to Ronaldo and Messi were unfortunate, but that’s not exactly his fault, neither a particularly valid criticism when you factor in that those guys have been in a league of their own for close to a decade.

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Coutinho and Firmino both have plenty of flair (and, this season, goals as well), but neither of them come close to Hazard in terms of sheer game-changing ability. In fact, Liverpool’s Brazilian duo, for all their obvious ability, have started to garner a reputation for being a little on the streaky side, and while it’s unfair to hold them solely responsible for Liverpool’s recent results (their defence, more than anything else, has been poor), they also haven’t been able to keep their team in the title hunt when they really needed it.

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