<
>

Eden Hazard: Chelsea want Premier League and Champions League double

Eden Hazard says Chelsea have the squad depth to defend their Premier League title and are genuine contenders to win the Champions League this season.

Chelsea endured a difficult summer transfer window in which they scrambled to get deals for Davide Zappacosta and Danny Drinkwater over the line in the final hours of deadline day.

Despite making six first-team signings, the Blues missed out on many first-choice targets, and last month head coach Antonio Conte warned that it would be "impossible" to navigate Chelsea's gruelling September run.

Chelsea face seven matches in 21 days but Hazard, who made his return from a broken ankle on Thursday, believes they have now have enough to get by.

"We just want to win as many trophies as possible," Hazard told the Daily Mail.

"For me personally I haven't won the Champions League so maybe that one would be a little bit more special, but I would prefer us to win everything.

"I think this year will be no different from the previous years, in the sense that every year it is difficult.

"But we will do our best and we have got depth in our squad so sometimes maybe one or two players can rest so they are 110 percent for the next competition."

Chelsea's shock opening-day defeat at home to Burnley played out against the backdrop of Diego Costa's ongoing feud with the club, with the exiled striker granting an interview to the Daily Mail in which he accused the Blues of treating him "like a criminal" and Conte of "lacking charisma."

Hazard, however, has a very different view of his head coach.

"I think we have got one of the best managers in the world," he said.

"I have a good relationship with all my managers. You know we train every day together and we can talk together and laugh together.

"So yes absolutely we have a good relationship, I wouldn't say 'friends' because it is difficult to be friends with your manager so I wouldn't say that but we have a good relationship."

Hazard is yet to feature for Chelsea this season, having missed the entirety of the club's preseason with a broken ankle sustained on Belgium duty in June.

Prior to the injury, Real Madrid were widely expected to make a significant attempt to buy the 26-year-old, but he insisted that he tunes out transfer rumours.

"You know I've been playing for 10 years now and every summer it is the same story," Hazard added.

"You read that this player can go here or there and in the end nothing happens.

"It is part of the job, it is part of football now and the newspapers need to write about it but for me as a player I just focus on my training and I focus on my game, that is the most important thing, and then if something happens it happens.

"Now the most important thing for me is just to recover, so I can get back in the squad and go out on the pitch to play. My goal is just to play football and to enjoy myself in front of the fans."