Fading Fast – Eden Hazard

Will the real Eden Hazard please stand up?

Five weeks into the season and the 10.0-valued Belgian has shown us both his 2014-15 Player of the Year form and a couple of stuttering and anonymous performances reminiscent of his woeful last campaign.

The problem for the 27.6% of Fantasy Premier League managers who own him is that trying to work out which version of Hazard they’re going to get from week to week is becoming an increasingly vexed and costly issue.

Throw in a nasty set of upcoming fixtures and it could well be time to cash out and use the freed-up funds on returning Sergio Aguero (13.0) to the Fantasy fold.

Hazard has two goals and an assist from five matches thus far. But 21 of his 28 points have come from just two performances, and he’s managed a mere three points from his last two fixtures.

He is still owned by more than a million FPL managers, even though his price has now dropped a whopping 0.3 in a week. Such loyalty is laudable for a player who is now down to ninth among the highest scoring FPL midfielders, with only two of those above him costing more – Alexis Sanchez (11.0) and Kevin De Bruyne (10.7).

Even if we discount the astonishing early season form of Etienne Capoue (5.0) on the grounds that he’s got to stop being so brilliant sooner or later, comparisons with others at the top of their midfield game do not serve Hazard well.

The Man City pair of De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling (8.4), currently second and third in the midfielders’ table, play in a side showing serious consistency, which is more than you can say for Chelsea.

They also have a fixture list that offers a lot more promise than Chelsea’s, with a Gameweek 7 trip to Spurs their toughest test all the way through to an early December match at home to Hazard and co.

And both have been easily out-performing him over the last three Gameweeks.

Hazard has managed a goal and no assists, nine goal attempts, a shot accuracy of 44.4% and a 38.6 minutes per chance created average. De Bruyne’s stats are two, two, 12, 50% and 20 minutes respectively, while Sterling weighs in with three, one, 10, 50% and 83 minutes – that latter stat the only one Hazard can better.

The other big-ticket player in the top ten, Alexis Sanchez, also puts Hazard in the shade for the most part, with three goals, one assist, 10 goal attempts, a 70% shot accuracy and a 56.5 minutes per chance created average.

All three also have a better minutes per chance average than Hazard’s 30.

In fact, the only area to offer a crumb of comfort for Hazard owners involves Chelsea’s team stats – the side is currently top for attempts (62), chances created (49) and minutes per chance (4.5).

But they’ll do well to keep those levels up over the next four fixtures. Chelsea will be away at Arsenal and Hull City and then home to Leicester and Man United. There’s also Everton, Spurs and that Man City match to come through to early December.

Unless Hazard picks up the pace again, and does so during a seriously tough run of fixtures, his value is going to drop further.

Time then to cash in on one of the game’s most expensive midfielders? The need to find funds to push through the return of Sergio Aguero to the Fantasy ranks has certainly never been so urgent.

Swapping Hazard for Capoue nets 5.0 and Theo Walcott 2.5. Even Sterling frees up 1.6 towards Aguero’s monster price tag.

Or maybe the ‘reverse curse’ of Fading Fast will save him – last week we doubted Riyad Mahrez and he promptly scored two Champions League goals and notched an FPL assist. The previous week’s (unpublished) piece on Harry Kane also preceded the Spurs man’s mini goal rush.

Time will tell. But it’s also close to running out for the talented, but increasingly erratic, Belgian.