Eden Hazard: ‘Top of the league. I hope at the end of the season it will be the same’
Eden Hazard, fresh off a hat trick against Newcastle on Saturday, wants Chelsea to solidify their place at the top of the Premier League with a win over West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho may have played down his side’s Premier League title chances, but in-form forward Eden Hazard admits that he has been dreaming of winning the league.
Hazard’s hat-trick in the 3-0 win over Newcastle United on Saturday means that Mourinho’s side will travel to West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday a point clear at the head of the table with a third of the season remaining.
The run-in is about to gather pace and the Belgium winger has revealed that thoughts of lifting the championship trophy are already disturbing his sleep.
Following the weekend win, Hazard told Chelsea TV: “Top of the league. I go in my bed, I dream. I hope at the end of the season it will be the same.
“It’s a pleasure to play for this team and to work for that.”
Hazard’s personal contribution has been one of the main factors underpinning Chelsea’s progress this season and the 23-year-old has been described as the best young player in the world by Mourinho.
“Eden is a great player, he has great confidence as well, and anything he touches at the moment is going for him,” said team-mate Gary Cahill.
“He’s a young player getting better and at the moment he is producing some world-class football for us.
“In the first half (against Newcastle), when we didn’t play particularly well and the game was quite tight, you want that little bit of individual brilliance and Eden produced that for us with two goals in which he was heavily involved in the build-up and he finished them.
“He has adapted to the league very well, he is a special player, and he thoroughly deserved his hat-trick.”
While Chelsea are on an outstanding run that has yielded eight wins and two draws in their last 10 league games, they face a West Brom side who slid into the bottom three following their weekend loss at Crystal Palace.
The form book suggests a comfortable win for the league leaders, but Cahill insists that there is no chance of complacency creeping in.
“We got credit for the performance against Manchester City last week (a 1-0 win), but we didn’t want to sit back and rest on our laurels,” he said.
“It is all about momentum for us. There is no better feeling than winning football matches and at the minute we are getting some good results and we want to keep that feeling going.”
West Brom head coach Pepe Mel says that his players must quickly turn around their fortunes after slipping into the bottom three.
The 3-1 defeat at Palace left them with just one victory from 15 Premier League games and Mel with two points from a possible 12 since taking charge.
“For me it’s early, it’s like pre-season, but there are no friendly matches,” he said. “The matches are all important.
“I hope it comes together soon because we need to win three points soon. West Brom need to be in the Premier League next season.”
West Brom goalkeeper Ben Foster admits that his side cannot allow themselves to start against Chelsea like they did at the weekend, when they fell 2-0 down to Palace within the opening 27 minutes.
“We can’t let it get to the point when we are one or two goals down in a game and then finally make a push for the game. We need to go from the very first minute,” he said.
“We have to remain positive and take the second-half performance into the Chelsea game.”
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
HIV on the rise in the region
A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.
New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.
Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.
Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.
Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.
Company name: Play:Date
Launched: March 2017 on UAE Mother’s Day
Founder: Shamim Kassibawi
Based: Dubai with operations in the UAE and US
Sector: Tech
Size: 20 employees
Stage of funding: Seed
Investors: Three founders (two silent co-founders) and one venture capital fund
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Venom
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Cast: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed
Rating: 1.5/5
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Dark Souls: Remastered
Developer: From Software (remaster by QLOC)
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Price: Dh199
Know your Camel lingo
The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home
Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
Scotland 371-5, 50 overs (C MacLeod 140 no, K Coetzer 58, G Munsey 55)
England 365 all out, 48.5 overs (J Bairstow 105, A Hales 52; M Watt 3-55)
Result: Scotland won by six runs
The chef's advice
Troy Payne, head chef at Abu Dhabi’s newest healthy eatery Sanderson’s in Al Seef Resort & Spa, says singles need to change their mindset about how they approach the supermarket.
“They feel like they can’t buy one cucumber,” he says. “But I can walk into a shop – I feed two people at home – and I’ll walk into a shop and I buy one cucumber, I’ll buy one onion.”
Mr Payne asks for the sticker to be placed directly on each item, rather than face the temptation of filling one of the two-kilogram capacity plastic bags on offer.
The chef also advises singletons not get too hung up on “organic”, particularly high-priced varieties that have been flown in from far-flung locales. Local produce is often grown sustainably, and far cheaper, he says.
Date of Birth: April 25, 1993 Place of Birth: Dubai, UAE Marital Status: Single School: Al Sufouh in Jumeirah, Dubai University: Emirates Airline National Cadet Programme and Hamdan University Job Title: Pilot, First Officer Number of hours flying in a Boeing 777: 1,200 Number of flights: Approximately 300 Hobbies: Exercising Nicest destination: Milan, New Zealand, Seattle for shopping Least nice destination: Kabul, but someone has to do it. It’s not scary but at least you can tick the box that you’ve been Favourite place to visit: Dubai, there’s no place like home
