West Ham’s Michail Antonio has explained why a former Chelsea player was a nightmare to come up against on the football pitch.
Chelsea have had some incredible players in their history, including during the last decade when Michail Antonio has regularly played against the Blues in London derbies.
Hopefully, Enzo Maresca is about to lead Chelsea into a great new era.
Michail Antonio raves about Eden Hazard
West Ham star Antonio, who’s gone from a full-back to a centre-forward during his career, was asked on The Rest Is Football to name his best ever opponent. Interestingly, he decided to go with Chelsea great Eden Hazard.
The retired 33-year-old winger spent the best years of his career in Chelsea colours between 2012 and 2019, where he regularly tormented Premier League players.
When asked to name the best player he’s played against, Antonio said: “Hazard in his prime at Chelsea. I played right-back against him as well and he was the most frustrating person to play against ever.
“Literally, he didn’t come up against me, which was annoying. He would pick the ball up and drive into midfield. Do you know how hard that is when they drive inside? You can’t get close… I was literally chasing shadows the whole days because I couldn’t even get close to him with the way he was driving inside.”
Similarly, Danny Welbeck recently paid tribute to Chelsea legend Hazard by naming him as his toughest ever opponent.
Many people feel like the Belgian attacker could’ve gone on and achieved even greater things with more professionalism, but he’s quite obviously left a superb legacy in English football.
Elsewhere, Jack Grealish picked Hazard over Neymar when selecting between two of the most technically gifted footballers of the 21st century.
Do Chelsea have their new Eden Hazard?
It felt like Hazard carried Chelsea on his back in patches with moments of sheer individual brilliance. When you look back to last season, there’s an argument to be made that Cole Palmer did something very similar.
Hazard won the PFA’s Young Player of the Year early into his Blues career in the 2013/14 season. Meanwhile, Palmer won the same individual prize after his heroics last year at Stamford Bridge.
Palmer admitted he would’ve loved to play with Hazard over any other Chelsea player in history. The England playmaker is at least walking in Hazard’s shoes right now as the talisman of the club with so much expectation on his shoulders.
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