After six years at Chelsea, Eden Hazard finally scored his 100th goal.
In the 2-1 Boxing Day win over Watford, the Belgian slotted home past goalkeeper Ben Foster in style to reach the landmark. With Hazard hitting this huge milestone, it leaves me to ask a question- Is Eden Hazard a Chelsea legend?
At first thought, I’m not too sure on whether we can label Hazard as a legend just yet. However, when you look at his Chelsea career and his stats you start to realise why he is viewed in such a prestigious light.
Firstly, Hazard is the 10th player to score 100 goals for Chelsea, as he sits among the top 10 greatest goalscorers at the club. This is alongside players such as Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Peter Osgood, who all have legendary status.
Above: The top 10 all-time leading goalscorers at Chelsea, updated to include Eden Hazard’s goals on 26 December.
In fact, almost all of the players who make up the top 10 have this status, so why shouldn’t Eden Hazard have it? To be among the top 10 at a club with a rich 113-year history is a huge achievement, and deserves some special recognition.
Secondly, Hazard has won silverware. In modern football, it seems crucial that to be successful you have to have won something, and if that is the case then the Belgian surely fits the bill.
Since signing from Lille in 2012, he has won five major honours including two Premier League titles and the Europa League. Hazard was key in every trophy triumph, further suggesting that he is a legend at Chelsea.
However if there’s one argument against Hazard being a legend, it’s that the man himself doesn’t believe so. In his post-match interview, he said: “I want to score more goals for this club and then try to be a legend like Lampard, Terry, Drogba.”
You can easily respond to this by saying he’s trying to be humble- after all, what player would call themself a legend? But then again, he didn’t have to reference to legend status, suggesting that he truly does want to become one.
So, what do I think? At first I wasn’t sure, but when I really looked into the statistics and records it’s hard to say that he isn’t. Hazard is certainly one of – if not the – most talented players I’ve ever seen at the club in my time.
Whether he does eventually move to Real Madrid is still not certain, and whether this would affect his status at the club like Thibaut Courtois’ move did is hard to tell. What is certain though, is that Eden Hazard is a fantastic footballer, and deserves all the praise and acclaim he gets.
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