Hazard hopes Chelsea strong start can ‘scare’ title rivals

Eden Hazard hopes Chelsea can strike fear into the rest of the Premier League by maintaining their winning start at Watford on Saturday.

Antonio Conte’s side won their first match of the campaign at home to West Ham on Monday night, but Hazard hopes a string of wins will get their title rivals worried.

“If you win the first few games all the other teams will see that and say you are ready for the Premier League,” explained the Belgium international. “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 been at the helm for just over a month and has been working on improving the players’ fitness and diet, with pizza, ketchup and fizzy drinks reportedly banned from the training ground.

“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!”