Cesar Azpilicueta has claimed to The Athletic that Eden Hazard is the best player he has ever played with at Chelsea.
The club captain has seen plenty of talented players in the 11 years he has been at Stamford Bridge, who have helped him win all of the trophies available to him.
He is currently in a position where he is seeing the newest crop of potential superstars coming through the door.
Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Mudryk and Joao Felix were all brought in during the last window.
However, the Spain international has looked back when considering who was the best teammate he has had in West London.
He said: “The hardest opponent I have faced was Eden Hazard. Obviously there were many in other teams, but I will always say training every day with Eden was something that gave me a good taste of the Premier League.
Azpilicueta picks Hazard as his best ever teammate
“To face the best player in the Premier League, always one against one — I could take that experience into the games. I was ready to face anyone after facing Eden every day.”
“The way he turned… he could get the ball and turn so quickly. He could shoot with his right and left foot. He was strong, too. Even if you wanted to kick him sometimes, you couldn’t put him down. It was quite impressive!
“There were occasions I would get the better of him but, to be fair, sometimes he was a bit lazy in training. But when he wanted to be on it, he was very hard to stop.”
Hazard’s fortunes have unfortunately taken a real fall since he emotionally left Chelsea in 2019.
Injuries have taken a toll on his dream move to Real Madrid, turning his prospects into more of a nightmare.
Things have not been going better internationally too. The 32-year-old has since retired as a Belgium player after a disastrous World Cup.
Receive a digest of our best Chelsea content each week direct to your mailbox
