Eden Hazard Falls Below Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi Level, Says Gary Neville

The bad news just keeps on coming for Eden Hazard following Gary Neville's latest appraisal of his talents, insisting the Chelsea winger is no longer on the same level as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.  

After leading the Blues to last season's Premier League title, the belief was growing that Hazard could become a Ballon d'Or contender in the future, but speaking on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football (via Sky Sports), Neville expressed his disappointment:

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I've got no sympathy for Hazard. I expect more of him. The level he got to last season, you started to see a great player. In the Premier League, how many real top, world-class players could you say we have in the league?

[...]

Hazard, there was talk last season of him getting into that Messi, Ronaldo bracket. Of course they have off periods but even in the off periods they still contribute, they score goals. You saw Ronaldo breaking the record at the weekend and what Messi's done. But I've got no sympathy for [Hazard] in the sense that the question mark hanging over him is in respect of 'can he go to that next, next level?

"

Hazard will be only too aware of how far he and Chelsea as a whole have fallen since last season's top-flight triumph, and the Belgian's slump reached a new low as he was dropped for Saturday's 2-0 win over Aston Villa.

Kristof Terreur of Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws quoted Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho in the wake of that result, where the Portuguese specified Hazard's lack of defensive work rate as the reason behind his decision:

Hazard has still managed to make the 23-man shortlist for this year's Ballon d'Or, as BBC Sport confirmed on Tuesday, but it's difficult to envision him launching any genuine competition against his more in-form rivals.

Mourinho's decision to leave the once undroppable attacker out of his XI against Villa was a watershed moment in realising the 24-year-old's fall from grace, and Sky Sports MNF put that plummet into numbers, compared with last season:

The double-edged sword of success in sport is that winning can tend to breed complacency in any player, and perhaps even Mourinho would be inclined to agree some of his stars have fallen victim to that curse in recent months.

It's for that reason academy product Ruben Loftus-Cheek was afforded a rare start against Villa, one unburdened by a sense of entitlement and still very much fighting for prominence at Stamford Bridge.

Hazard now faces a fight to reclaim his former stardom in west London, although he's not the only Blues figure to endure a below-par start to this season, with the likes of Nemanja Matic and Branislav Ivanovic also far from their best.

The official Premier League Twitter account confirmed Saturday's shift in the Chelsea power balance, but Mourinho seemed justified in his choice considering it brought about the team's first win in four games:

As Neville mentioned, even Ronaldo and Messi have their bad patches, but part of their champion quality is having the mental fortitude to bounce back from those lows time and again.

With a long way to go in what could be a very illustrious career, Hazard still has the time on his hands to gain that kind of resolve, and it's that which will decide if he returns to challenge his superstar peers in the near future.