Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany is hoping that his international team-mate Eden Hazard misses the Blues trip to Etihad on Sunday with some minor illness like diarrhoea after praising the Belgian for being instrumental in important fixtures.
Hazard was voted as the Premier League’s best player last season and Kompany is aware of the threat posed by the Belgian. Hazard was instrumental in helping Jose Mourinho reclaim the English Premier League title in the Portuguese manager’s second stint with the club.
You’d almost hope that Eden Hazard would have diarrhoea – Kompany
The Belgian international was full of praise for his Belgian teammate and went so far as to say that the 24-year-old was comparable to the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo but he did agree that Hazard couldn’t match the duo in terms of their goal-scoring abilities.
Speaking in an interview with the Evening Standard, Kompany said:
“You’d almost hope that Eden Hazard would have diarrhoea.”
“Now let’s be serious. You can’t underestimate the impact he has on Chelsea. And then you’ll expect he would have a dip in his performance level.”
“Last week against Swansea, he maybe didn’t play his best first half, but when they were reduced to ten, he was the only one who was dangerous. Because he ran past three-four defenders.”
“You can have as many tactical plans as you want, if Eden starts running, it is chaos. He’s at a level where he decides how good his team are.
“[Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo are stats animals. If you look at their talent, you can compare Eden to them. But they score a lot. Unbelievable.”
When quizzed if Hazard can one day reach the level of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo , the 29-year-old insisted that it could be possible, considering the huge strides that Hazard has made since his move to Chelsea FC.
“Could I say he will never reach their scoring levels? I would never bet on that.”
“Eden has made so much progression that last few years that it is possible he reaches their level. It wouldn’t even be a bad performance when he ends up just behind Messi and Ronaldo.”
City hoping to go five points clear of Chelsea FC
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The Blues faltered in their season opener against Swansea City, drawing their first home game of the season. Chelsea FC were down to 10-men near the half hour mark after goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was sent off for denying Bafetimbi Gomis a clear goal scoring opportunity. The incident was followed by Jose Mourinho having a public row with his medical team on the touchline in the dying seconds of the match as the medical team rushed on to the pitch to assist Eden Hazard who had suffered a knock.
Manchester City on the other hand comfortably won against West Brom in their season opener, with Yaya Toure almost unstoppable in the midfield. A win over Chelsea FC would see the Citizens open a 5 point gap against the title holders early on in the season. Manchester City dominated the two games between the sides last season, but were unable to claim the three points on either occasion as the Blues defended with aplomb and unarguably parked the ‘bus’.