Eden Hazard is King of the Bridge again after being one of the so called ‘rats’ who got Jose Mourinho the sack
Dave Kidd says Belgian was key to victory v Man Utd - even though N’Golo Kante should be player of year and hit winner
HE’S gone from vermin to ermine in a pretty short space of time, Eden Hazard.
One of the so-called ‘rats’ who deserted Jose Mourinho and earned Chelsea’s greatest manager the sack last season is lord of this manor again.
Mourinho knew it before the match had even begun.
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That’s why he sent Manchester United out to play with what was, effectively, a back six.
That’s why he detailed Phil Jones — who had debilitated his own captain Wayne Rooney in training for the second time in recent years — to man-mark the Belgian.
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That’s why he had seemingly demanded that his players try to kick Hazard off the park.
Had it not been for the stupidity of Ander Herrera, it might even have worked.
Mourinho has got form for successfully suffocating greater players even than Hazard.
His Inter Milan team once did a job on Lionel Messi in a Champions League semi-final, perhaps the greatest tactical achievement of Mourinho’s long career as a black-belt in the dark arts.
But when referee Michael Oliver made a deliberate point of telling Chris Smalling he was not going to stand by and watch Hazard being nobbled, Herrera — the only player on a yellow card — went and kicked him immediately.
A manager can have all the brains in the world but it only takes one dunce of a player to tear up his best-laid plans.
So while N’Golo Kante scored the all-important winner, it was Hazard who won this really. Just by being on the Chelsea team-sheet.
Kante ought to be Footballer of the Year because he has been the single most influential player for the team who will be runaway champions and might still win the Double.
The Frenchman with the tiny frame and the disproportionately massive lungs bossed the most expensive player in the world, Paul Pogba, in central midfield.
If only Mourinho got on a little better with Antonio Conte he might ask the former Juventus manager for tips on how to get the best out of his £89million man.
But while this was Kante’s night, those who think the great individual awards must always go to an attacking force will claim Hazard is the main man, for the second time in three seasons.
Conte is certainly making him feel wanted. The Italian’s season-shifting switch to a 3-4-3 formation in early autumn has allowed Hazard to flourish in a more narrow role.
He is the one true cavalier in this finely-tuned Chelsea machine.
Midway through the first half, with United’s bus-parking exercise well underway, Hazard span 180 degrees and left Smalling standing and startled.
He then outpaced Marcos Rojo before his shot was deflected wide.
It was the outstanding piece of skill on the night and a reminder that there is only so much spoiling a visiting team can undertake when a player possesses Hazard’s extreme levels of sauciness.
As soon as Manchester United’s PR people had stood up the story that they had no fit strikers, it was clear at least one of them would have a miraculous ‘recovery’.
And so Marcus Rashford stepped out into the ludicrous dry-ice show put on to create ‘atmosphere’ at the Bridge, his manager praising his selfless devotion.
This smoke and mirrors routine seemed to have worked as Conte opted to bring in Nemanja Matic for Cesc Fabregas, presumably in the mistaken belief that Marouane Fellaini would play up top.
Anyway, Mourinho had achieved his main aim of ensuring the pre-match build-up was all about him.
It soon became apparent that Mourinho was employing six at the back — a narrow back four with Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia as additional full-backs.
It was straight out of the Tony Pulis ‘Darth Vader with a chalkboard’ textbook.
After Hazard’s star turn and a brilliant David De Gea save to deny Gary Cahill from the resulting corner, Herrera’s moment of lunacy — which earned him a second yellow for two fouls on Hazard in swift succession — proved the turning point after just 35 minutes.
Ten against 11 was always going to be a tough ask.
Or ten against 12 if you take the popular belief that Kante counts as two men.
It was all about Hazard really, though. Before it had even started.