Hazard ignoring criticism

Eden Hazard has stressed that criticism does not affect him as he is determined to get back to his usual best after a difficult start to the season with Chelsea.

The Belgium international was a key figure for Chelsea in 2014-15 as he guided Jose Mourinho’s men to the Premier League and League Cup titles with a string of fine performances.

He has been unable to replicate last term’s sublime form in 2015-16, though, and was recently even dropped from the starting XI.

Nevertheless Hazard, who has made 16 appearances this season without finding the net, remains unperturbed by recent criticism and feels communication is key to hitting top form again.

“In a good moment or in a bad moment, we are professional. Personally I don’t read the newspapers. I try to focus only on my football and win games,” the attacker told the official Chelsea website.

“I need to train and try to forget everything and be a better player. It is the case I learn every day now. We try to speak about it together. The communication is very important. We know when we are in a bad way we need to keep going with communication.

“People are sad when you don’t win but the communication is very important and we did very well because every day we spoke together, and this is good.

“We need to keep going in training; we want to improve together and just want to win matches. We know the season after you are champion, it is difficult as everybody wants to beat you. We missed chances, I missed penalties, it’s very difficult but we need to keep going and improve.”