Hazard hopes strong Chelsea start can ‘scare’ title rivals

Eden Hazard: Happy with life under Antonio Conte

Eden Hazard: Happy with life under Antonio Conte

Eden Hazard has urged Chelsea to show their title rivals they mean business this season by building on their win against West Ham by recording a victory at Watford.

The 2014/15 Premier League title winners got off to the perfect start with victory over West Ham on Monday night after a late Diego Costa strike delivered Antonio Conte his first competitive win as the new Blues boss.

The Belgium international thinks a good run of results early on this season can strike fear into their Premier League title rivals.

“If you win the first few games all the other teams will see that and say you are ready for the Premier League,” explained Hazard.

“It scares them. If you don’t start well, you can still be champions at the end but it’s always better if you can win your first games. We know it’s a strong league, where you don’t know who will be champions at the start of the season. We hope it will be Chelsea, of course, but we know we have to fight for every game.”

Conte has changed several things since his arrival at Stamford Bridge, with fizzy drinks, pizza and ketchup reportedly banned from the training ground as he tries to get on top of the player’s diets.

“It’s his choice,” said Hazard. “He’s Italian. I have a lot of friends who play in Italy and they tell me that they can’t eat a lot. But if we win games, maybe it’s because of the food!”