Eden Hazard's Disappointing Penalty Miss Sums Up His Chelsea Season
It’s a phrase we've heard all too often for Chelsea this term.
“Last year, he would have scored that.”
Pick through the Chelsea squad, and every player has failed to replicate his championship-winning form from 2014/15.
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Where some have frustrated, Eden Hazard has disappointed.
Low on confidence, devoid of inspiration, the Belgian’s penalty miss against Stoke City on Tuesday has summed up his season.
It was an effort well-saved by Jack Butland to dump Chelsea out of the Capital One Cup, yet Hazard made it easy for the goalkeeper.
We’re used to seeing Hazard play a game of chicken with unfortunate goalkeepers when he steps up to the spot. He’ll give them the eyes, forcing them to flinch first before calmly sliding the ball into the other side of the net.
Not anymore. That technique has gone, with Hazard deciding to put his laces through the ball these days. It happened against Stoke, and it happened against Maccabi Tel-Aviv when he skied an early penalty into the stands.
That same decision on Tuesday set the ball up at the ideal height for Butland, whose outstretched hand deflected it over to ensure Chelsea will not retain their Capital One Cup crown this term.
And it’s that very technique that sums up where everything has gone south. In one motion, we witnessed where it has all gone wrong this season.
Chelsea’s decline is mirrored in Hazard’s. The endeavour was there from Chelsea on Tuesday; the intent hasn’t gone away, either. Yet much like their talisman, the champions are lacking the ability of execution.
They're second-guessing themselves, unsure of the right path to choose. And ultimately, they're picking the wrong one to travel.
Hazard himself had that effervescent swagger about him at the Britannia Stadium, although time and again, it was the final ball that let him down. The indecision was futile.
It won't do him any good by harking back to last season—his accolades and those that Chelsea won are nothing but history—yet it was not that long ago that Hazard was clinical in the final third. Every time he found himself in and around the opposition penalty area, we had the sense something was going to happen.
Opposition defences would be tense at the thought of what was coming next. Now it's Chelsea and Hazard who appear queasy whenever he's in the danger zone.
We just don't know what we're going to get from him. Will it be the brilliance that Hazard spoiled us with last season, or instead the tame stuff of the present?
In extra time at the Britannia, there looked to be only one winner here. Chelsea were making the most of their one-man advantage after Phil Bardsley was dismissed just before the final whistle of regulation time.
They were stretching the defence, finding the space and causing real panic. The belief they could finish Stoke off was missing, however.
Hazard himself was guilty of wasting some good opportunities, notably when he bent the ball agonisingly wide of Butland's goal after some excellent link-up play with Kenedy.
Had he scored, we'd be talking about this being Hazard's best display of the season. Instead, with Chelsea now left to focus their attentions on just three trophies this term, we're left to rue some more bad luck for Jose Mourinho's men.
Sure, Chelsea's predicament is down to much more than just the hand fate is dealing them at the moment, but they shouldn't feel totally deflated.
It's a point Mourinho was eager to stress at full time.
"Honestly, you think the players are not with me? You think the players didn't give everything to win the game? That’s really sad. It’s not sad for me, I think it’s sad for the players,” Chelsea's boss said, reflecting on the continuing speculation surrounding his future at Stamford Bridge.
What we saw at the Britannia was a team trying to play itself out of trouble, a team showing a bit more character than we have seen from it up to now.
Ultimately, it wasn't good enough, but encouraging nonetheless.
"It’s a lack of respect to the players, not to me," Mourinho continued. "For me it would be a fantastic situation if the players are against me. I could then say you don’t see results because the players are against me. It would be a fantastic situation for me."
What isn't fantastic is the slump in which Hazard finds himself. He fluffed his lines from the penalty spot on Tuesday, and until he turns things around personally, Chelsea will struggle to get out of the mire.
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes.
