Now Eden Hazard and Diego Costa Must Fire Chelsea into Title Contention

Antonio Conte’s chuckle said it all about where he thinks Chelsea stand in the Premier League title race.

The Blues boss was asked whether defeating Southampton 2-0 on Sunday meant his team should be considered as those we can expect to be chasing honours at the end of the season.

He didn’t need words—his laugh was enough to dismiss the notion. For now.

Still, if Eden Hazard and Diego Costa continue performing and scoring like they are, it won’t be long before this Chelsea side is firmly in the discussion about possible champions.

Last season feels too raw for us to be trusting Chelsea. Regardless of the changes Conte has made, question marks remain, especially when we consider how the Blues were undone against Liverpool and Arsenal in September.

Those defeats—especially the manner of their 3-0 loss to the Gunners—showed the soft underbelly remains. Conte has much more to do in order to return Chelsea to the ruthless force they once were. He’s still working through the scar tissue, repairing fragile egos in order to restore confidence.

In Hazard and Costa, he has his antidote.

The pair has a combined 13 Premier League goals this term. Costa is leading the top-flight’s scoring charts with eight; if we combine Hazard’s total with how he finished 2015/16, his opener at St. Mary’s on Sunday puts him on nine goals in 15 league outings since April.

That’s 0.6 goals per game—better on average than the scoring form that won the Belgian the individual plaudits and Chelsea the title in 2014/15, when he hit 0.37 goals per game in the league. It’s no coincidence this has come about since Conte switched things around, either.

Like Costa, Hazard was impeccable against Southampton. Now playing centrally and not being asked to track runners, he’s thinking about only one thing: damaging opponents and not his own team with his defensive lapses. He has looked a better player …

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