Chelsea shoved aside Burnley in a 3-0 one sided win with Victor Moses continuing his fine run of the season with a late goal.
It was like a pack of velociraptors — with Hazard leading at the front — eviscerating a diplodocus for 90 minutes until all that remained were a pile of bones. It was swift, ruthless, deadly. Hard to watch the mismatch of predator versus prey.
Hazard’s effort was superhuman and so was the way he scored on nine minutes; picking the ball up on half-way, sending opponents backtracking before cutting inside Michael Keane on the edge of the box and side-footing into the bottom right corner.
Willian, returning to the side following a calf injury, added a second just before half-time. Hazard passed in to Diego Costa on the edge of the box, he thought about shooting but passed the ball on to the Brazilian, who teased space from Stephen Ward and shot through the defender’s legs, across goal into the bottom left corner. A late deserved third goal came from substitute Victor Moses, who stretched to reach Pedro’s low ball from the left.
This was not a defensive Chelsea, this was the Chelsea of old, title-winning Chelsea who once played with flicks and tricks and swagger. They had not recorded successive victories at home last season; that has been rectified with their first home clean sheet since November last year.