Welcome back, Mr Hazard. We’ve been expecting you. On a chilly, boisterous night under the low white lights at Stamford Bridge Chelsea reached the final of the Carabaou Cup. They did so thanks to a first half during which they scored twice and played with an unmannered freedom, not so much Sarri-ball as a team settling back into a comfortable old pair of shoes.
Crucially Eden Hazard was restored from the start to a place on the left flank he never should have left. And for 45 minutes Hazard was sublime, a player reaching out into those old familiar spaces and reminding his manager that in this stitched-together Chelsea team there are some things you can only break by trying to fix.
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