{"id":1500,"date":"2019-02-28T10:08:06","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T10:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.incirliseviye.com\/2019\/02\/28\/hazard-back-on-top-as-chelsea-and-conte-set-up-mourinho-showdown\/"},"modified":"2019-02-28T10:08:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T10:08:06","slug":"hazard-back-on-top-as-chelsea-and-conte-set-up-mourinho-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/?p=1500","title":{"rendered":"Hazard back on top as Chelsea and Conte set up Mourinho showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Belgium playmaker conceded that he hasn’t been himself in recent weeks but happily for Chelsea fans he was back on form in the FA Cup semi-final <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

Eden Hazard this week admitted that his form over the past couple of months has been far beneath his expected level.<\/p>\n

There have been grumblings of disappointment from supporters with the Belgian playmaker\u2019s form but Hazard himself is his own harshest critic.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been on a luckless run in front of goal \u2013 only one scored his last 10 games \u2013 while Chelsea\u2019s collective form has been questionable since that Champions League last-16 first-leg draw against Barcelona at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n

Article continues below<\/span> <\/div>\n
\n

Editors' Picks<\/h3>\n

Sarri vindicated for dropping Kepa as Chelsea & Pedro impress in Spurs win Magnificent Mane takes centre stage as league leaders Liverpool put on a five-star show Lukaku sends reminder that his Man Utd career is far from over Man City monitoring Barcelona & Chelsea target Jovic <\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

It was a welcome return to form then for the 27-year-old against Southampton at Wembley on Sunday as Chelsea set up a showdown with Jose Mourinho\u2019s Manchester United on May 19 in the FA Cup final.<\/p>\n

Hazard may not have got on the scoresheet himself but he conjured the most important moment of the match \u2013 just after half-time \u2013 when Olivier Giroud handed Antonio Conte\u2019s team the lead.<\/p>\n

Hazard pulled the ball down majestically before supplying the Frenchman whose finish was Messi-esque. There was both poise and tenacity in Hazard\u2019s action before the goal and the moment crowned what was his most complete performance of this recent difficult period for Conte\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

He was influential throughout and he appeared to be a more confident figure with the ball at his feet. There is no doubt that on his day Hazard is unplayable but even the man himself conceded that those days have been few and far between in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Chelsea\u2019s season has died a death on two fronts since the defeats to Barcelona in the Champions League and Tottenham in the race for the top four but they remain in contention for a trophy they last won in 2012. They were ousted by Arsenal in last year’s final as a bid for the double fell flat but victory here next month would certainly provide some consolation for Conte in what could well be his last game in charge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And if Chelsea\u00a0are to gain success against United then Hazard will again have an integral role to play.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Conte will be relieved too with the contribution from the bench of Alvaro Morata. The striker endured a difficult night in Burnley on Thursday – reacting with some petulance when he was substituted \u2013 and had to kick his heels at Wembley while Giroud retained his starting berth.<\/p>\n

The forward\u00a0signed from Arsenal for \u00a318m has been in better touch than Morata of late and there was perhaps a sense that he had won the striker\u2019s shirt from the ex-Real Madrid man.<\/p>\n

He took his goal well \u2013 extending his run of extraordinary success in the FA Cup (he has scored more goals than anyone in the competition since 2012) \u2013 but his output was matched by Morata. He took his header well \u2013 definitively extinguishing Southampton\u2019s hopes \u2013 and could have had at least one more when Hazard picked him out in the box.<\/p>\n

There are question marks against the Spain international but his goal was a welcome riposte to those who had been sniping against him.<\/p>\n

The day though was tailored for Hazard. The Chelsea fans sang his name fondly in injury time as he was named as the official man of the match. And he deserved it; Hazard was excellent. What Conte can hope for now is that this game can re-establish his confidence with his ex-manager Mourinho looming on the horizon.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Belgium playmaker conceded that he hasn’t been himself in recent weeks but happily for Chelsea fans he was back on form in the FA Cup semi-final Eden Hazard this week admitted that his form over the past couple of months has been far beneath his expected level. There have been grumblings of disappointment from … <\/p>\n

Read more “Hazard back on top as Chelsea and Conte set up Mourinho showdown”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fa-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}