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Antonio Conte: Pedro is as good as Hazard and Costa at Chelsea

By Christopher Godfrey

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 25: Cesc Fabregas of Chelsea (R) celebrates scoring his sides first goal with Pedro of Chelsea (L) during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Swansea City at Stamford Bridge on February 25, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 25: Cesc Fabregas of Chelsea (R) celebrates scoring his sides first goal with Pedro of Chelsea (L) during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Swansea City at Stamford Bridge on February 25, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) /
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Antonio Conte compared Pedro with Hazard and Costa after scoring and assisting one in their latest clash against Swansea.

Pedro was menacing throughout the game as the Blues fought hard after Swansea scored an equalizer just before half-time. Manager Antonio Conte admitted that Pedro is as good as Costa and Hazard at Chelsea.

Pedro has now scored seven goals in his last 10 games for Chelsea after scoring a number of crucial goals to help Chelsea gain an 11 point gap in the title race.

Antonio Conte reflected on Pedro’s fine form after the game.

"‘Pedro is showing his quality.‘We are not finding out [something new about him]. He is a great player like Hazard or Costa."

Conte then went on to explain that the reason behind Pedro’s fine form is due to the 3-4-3 formation change.

"‘The formation is exploiting his characteristics better than before.’"

In my opinion, Pedro has actually been more important than Eden Hazard this season. While Hazard has scored a few nice goals such as the superb individual goal against Arsenal. Pedro has scored  a number of more important goals for Chelsea, such as the long-range equalizing goal against Spurs just before half time. Then again, against Swansea, Pedro scored the second goal which effectively won it for the Blues.

Pedro also assisted for Fabregas’ first goal and he made a particularly impressive run past several Swansea defenders (much like Hazard’s goal against Arsenal) and should’ve scored but for an excellent piece of defending from Swansea.

Pedro failed to score in his first nine games of the season, but after the formation change he has scored eight goals in the league for the Blues.

This is due to the fact that Pedro is playing further forward on the wing and is given licence to roam, just like Eden Hazard.  This means Pedro has less defensive responsibilities which allows him to stay forward where he makes those lightning quick runs behind the defense.

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While Hazard has scored 10 goals this season, Pedro is catching up with eight. Pedro also has six assists while Hazard has only four.

Pedro also benefited from fellow Spanish man Cesc Fabregas starting as Pedro assisted for Fabregas in the first goal, while Fabregas assisted Pedro for the second goal.

If Antonio Conte starts Fabregas more now in place of Nemanja Matic then Pedro will thrive off of Fabregas’ passes and will ultimately score more.

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Hazard was also excellent in the game but Pedro was more threatening and made incisive runs.

It’s clear that Pedro has finally found his form ever since leaving Barcelona and he holds his own alongside Diego Costa and Eden Hazard.

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