Match Report: Hazard Shines as Chelsea's Old Guard Reunite

With no sign of Diego Costa or his hamstring anywhere near the pitch last night, Loïc Remy got the call to start up front. However, within minutes of the game kicking off it was evident that Costa was not the only one carrying an injury. Remy’s understudy on the night, Didier Drogba, began warming up after just 10 minutes. Nevertheless the Frenchman wasn’t going to let any underlying pain stop him from finding the back of the net. Remy scored from a through ball from John Terry that would have made Cesc Fàbregas proud. But that would be Remy’s sole contribution on the night as he winced his way down the tunnel.

As Chelsea continued with a wave of attacks upon the Slovenian champions, Ales Mertelj thought he should just scoop the ball out of his own 18 yard box and in doing so gave the home side a penalty. Although Eden Hazard has an outstanding record from the spot, Drogba stepped up to take this one, scoring 886 days after his last goal for Chelsea.

At 2 goals up, a previous Mourinho side would look to shore things up and grind out the win, entertainment be damned. But the re-branded ‘Happy One’ instructed his side to play to ‘their maximum as it’s the only way to properly show respect to your opposition’. Chelsea’s third goal came just after the half hour mark off the end of John Terry’s boot. He decided to make the run from his own penalty area and try his luck.

Petr Cech was also given a rare start. Although he wasn’t seriously tested over the course of 90 minutes, Maribor did have 9 shots on the Czech’s goal and were awarded a penalty from an unusually sloppy challenge from Nemanja Matic on Agim Ibraimi. The last 4 penalties that Cech has faced in the Champions League have not been been scored, with Ibraimi’s no exception.

With an eye on Sunday’s trip to Old Trafford and this game under control, Mourinho opted to rest Fàbregas and Oscar for the remainder of the game as Nathan Aké and Dominic Solanke came on to replace them. Aké has made a half dozen appearances for the first team in the league and Europe but it was a debut for Solanke, who has been with Chelsea since the U-8s. Mourinho believes it better to introduce the youth players ‘when the situation is good’. Mourinho said he had ‘a lot of trust in Kurt Zouma’ and that Nathan Aké is ‘almost, almost, almost there’.

The outstanding performer of the night, however, was Chelsea’s perfect 10 Eden Hazard, picking up a rating from WhoScored to match that of his shirt number. He was instrumental in the captain’s first goal of the season and played a part in each of Chelsea’s 3 second half goals. Viler’s own goal came off a deflected cut-back from the diminutive Belgian. He then scored Chelsea’s second penalty of the night and capped it off with a right footed shot which he slotted into the bottom left corner. Hazard’s runs terrorised Maribor as he twisted and turned them inside and out. Mourinho has been publicly critical of the Belgian in order to get the best out of him - but he’d be hard pressed to find anything to find fault in Hazard’s man of the match winning performance last night.

How did you rate Chelsea's performance last night? Let us know in the comments below