Hazard hopes Chelsea can rediscover form of two years ago

Eden Hazard hopes Chelsea’s players can rediscover the form that won them the Premier League title two years ago.

Hazard was named Player of the Year as the Blues won the championship in 2014-15, but they suffered in defending their crown and could only finish 10th last season.

The Belgium international knows he must find the performances that won him so many plaudits, and is targetting a strong start at home to West Ham United on Monday.

“Everybody needs to be the same player as two years ago,” Hazard told Sky Sports. “We tried to find a lot of excuses for why we didn’t play well last season, but we don’t know why. Maybe some players were tired, but we need to be focused and train hard to be ready.

“It’s a fresh start. We have one objective together, to do better than last season. We try to forget last season and be ready for the future.

“The most important thing for me is to get on the ball and score goals and make the difference. The manager [Antonio Conte] speaks a lot to the players and brings a lot of confidence, because we know last season was not good enough and we are trying for a new dynamic and to start the season well.

“It’s the first time since I came here I will not be playing Champions League or Europa League. For us it’s new, but we need to adapt, one game for one week, and we will see how we can do.

“We have a lot of rest in the week. For recovery it’s very good, sometimes in the Champions League you travel far and come back late. Sometimes it’s difficult. Now we just have one game and we need to concentrate on this game.”