The Big Question: Is Eden Hazard the Premier League's best player? | OneFootball

The Belgian had an impressive World Cup and has been one of the finest performers in European football ever since he first burst onto the scene at Lille all those years ago.

But is he the best player in the Premier League?

On current form, the answer has to be yes. The Chelsea forward has scored six goals in six games in all competitions so far this season, and nobody else in the league has been able to match his performance levels yet.

Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has begun the new campaign slowly, while Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne has so far played just 30 minutes of football and will be out until November with a knee injury.

But there are legitimate question marks hanging over Hazard’s claim to the Premier League throne.

For starters, the 27-year-old has never been the most consistent of performers. This is now his seventh season in England’s top flight and you could argue that at least two of those campaigns (2015/16 and 2017/18) were rather underwhelming by his standards.

When he’s on it he’s unplayable. Even when he’s off it he’s a very good player, but his lengthy dips in form may be the main reason many are hesitant to declare him the best player in the league.

And if we assume that the best player in the league has to be somebody who contributes lots of goals and/or assists, then Hazard’s record in that area leaves quite a lot to be desired.

Earlier this month, Blues boss Maurizio Sarri challenged his star man to score 40 goals this season and, though he’s already well on the way, it’s quite a leap for a player who has never scored 20 times for Chelsea in a single campaign.

Yep, you read that right. Hazard’s best goalscoring season in a Chelsea shirt saw him find the net 19 times in all competitions in 2014/15. The following season, he only managed a measly six goals (there’s that inconsistency we were talking about).

On average, he contributes around 14 goals a season which isn’t bad, but puts him some way behind the likes of Harry Kane (33), Sergio Agüero (28) and Romelu Lukaku (21).

Of course, he isn’t an out-and-out striker and goals aren’t everything, but the stats show that Hazard is far from the best provider in the league either.

Let’s look at the 2016/17 season – when Chelsea won the title – as an example.

That year, Hazard managed just five assists and three big chances created, which was pretty poor in comparison to De Bruyne (18 assists, 24 chances created), Christian Eriksen (15 assists, 16 chances created) David Silva (seven assists, 12 chances created) and Mesut Özil (nine assists, nine chances created).

Even in 2014/15, when Hazard was named PFA Player of the Year, he registered just 14 goals, 9 assists and 12 big chances created. His returns are never bad, but they’re never brilliant either.

So, while it’s true that stats don’t always tell the full story, Hazard’s record when it comes to goals and assists do little to strengthen his case in this debate.

However, that doesn’t mean he isn’t world-class. All the signs so far point to the 2018/19 campaign being another very successful one for Hazard on a personal level, and if the Player of the Year award was handed out after six games, there’d only be one winner.

But he isn’t a better goalscorer than Salah, Agüero, Kane or Lukaku, he isn’t as creative as Silva, Eriksen or Özil, and arguably no player in the league is as complete as De Bruyne.

After six seasons in England, Hazard still has a fair bit to prove and if he does manage more than 20 goals for Chelsea this year, then – and only then – can we talk about him possibly being the Premier League’s finest.