LONDON -- Antonio Conte joked that he will have to order Gary Cahill and Danny Drinkwater not to kick Eden Hazard in Chelsea training ahead of England's clash with Belgium at next summer's World Cup.
Hazard continued his scintillating form with two goals and a dominating performance in Chelsea's 3-1 victory over Newcastle at Stamford Bridge, converting a penalty with an impetuous Panenka after cancelling out Dwight Gayle's early opener for the visitors with a first-time strike on 21 minutes.
Alvaro Morata also netted his ninth goal in 14 Premier League appearances but it was Hazard who was voted man of the match, and afterwards Conte was asked how he would advise England manager Gareth Southgate to go about stopping Chelsea's star man in Russia next summer.
"I saw yesterday the draw and England [and] Belgium are in the same group at the World Cup," Conte said. "There are two teams [in the group] to qualify for the next round. England and Belgium are favourites to do this in the World Cup.
"It will be special to see this game, England against Belgium. If I have the possibility I would like to watch this game."
Pressed on whether he had any tips for England, he replied with a laugh: "There is Cahill and Danny. I have to speak with Cahill and Danny and tell them to avoid to give kicks to Eden [in training]."
On the subject of Hazard's performance, he added: "I think he played a really good game. I think he enjoyed a lot playing this type of football. He is an important player as we can change our system. He can play as a second striker, he can play as number 10 when we change to 3-4-3.
"Today, Eden and Alvaro showed a great link and I saw a lot of good combination play. I am happy. But you know very well in this league there is a team doing extraordinary things -- that is Manchester City.
"Otherwise I think stay there with the other teams. At the same time it is important to look at ourselves and go step by step and game by game."
Newcastle goalkeeper Karl Darlow told Sky Sports after the match that Hazard's penalty annoyed him, but Conte insisted he had no problem with it.
"The most important thing for me is score the penalty and then you can decide what you want and how you want to kick," the Italian said. "The important thing for me is to score and it happened and I am happy for this.
"Next time he must have great attention because the goalkeepers study the players who take penalties. But I repeat, for me the most important thing is to score and it happened."
Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez also had words of praise for Hazard, who ruined his first return to Stamford Bridge since guiding Chelsea to third place in the Premier League and a Europa League triumph during an unpopular seven-month interim spell in the 2012-13 season.
"He was quite good in my time and he's even better now," Benitez said of Hazard. "He has more experience and I think he can make the difference in any game."