There have been few better players to watch in a Chelsea shirt than Eden Hazard. He had an unsurpassed natural ability in possession. Just ask Frank Lampard and John Terry, who have said Hazard is the best technical footballer they have ever seen adorn our colours. And don’t forget they both played with Gianfranco Zola! In 2019, Zola himself insisted the ‘unbelievable’ Hazard was our greatest foreign import.

What made Hazard so good? He had a mastery of the ball, even when running at high speed. His shift of balance, strength and skill combined to torment opposition defenders, who didn’t know whether they were coming or going.

Hazard had wonderful football intelligence, knowing when to play a pass, and how best to execute it. And of course, he was a vital goalscorer for seven seasons at Stamford Bridge, racking up over a century in blue. Several of those were individual efforts worthy of inclusion in any showreel of great Chelsea goals.

Singling out one Hazard performance above the rest is by no means an easy task, such was the consistency with which he delivered standout contributions. You will no doubt have your own fondest memory of our brilliant Belgian. But for us, on a cold midweek in the North-East in December 2013, Hazard scaled a height that will take some beating.

The setting was the Stadium of Light, the opposition Sunderland. Hazard lined up on the left of the attacking trio behind centre-forward Fernando Torres, with Willian alongside him, and Juan Mata on the opposite flank.

Hazard instigated our first attack of note with a blend of strength and trickery on halfway that opened the Black Cats up. He couldn’t quite reach Mata’s cross having continued his run into the box.

Gus Poyet’s Sunderland then took the lead, but Hazard soon conjured up an equaliser. Collecting a deep corner on the apex of the 18-yard box, he sprinted past Craig Gardner before putting the brakes on. Gardner couldn’t halt his run in time to stop the cross, which was delicately curled into the six-yard box in the same motion. Lampard couldn’t miss.

Hazard completed seven dribbles in the first half alone. Emanuele Giaccherini and Phil Bardsley on Sunderland’s right bore the brunt, powerless to stop Hazard gliding past them, cutting inside.

With ten minutes to go until the interval, Hazard turned from creator to scorer with a moment of individual inspiration. There was no immediate danger to the Sunderland goal when he advanced at their defence, but with a simple dart inside, the space was there for a shot. He needed no second invitation to drill the ball from the edge of the area into the far bottom corner.

There was still time before the break for Hazard to tease Bardsley twice more, resulting in a shot shovelled behind by Vito Mannone, and an obvious yellow card for the right-back for tugging Hazard’s shirt when he danced around him on the byline.

Hazard was far from done, although nor were Sunderland. When Chelsea again struggled to deal with a set-piece, John O’Shea equalised for 2-2.

The virtuoso Hazard responded. He dribbled infield and thrashed a shot that was too hot for Mannone to hold, but Torres couldn’t steer the loose ball home. Chelsea kept pushing. Mata found Hazard hugging the left touchline. Over came Bardsley and Giaccherini to try and thwart an escape route. Hazard nudged the ball around them into the path of Lampard, who made a good diagonal run then crafted an even better backheel.

Hazard escaped the Sunderland duo’s grasp to collect the return pass. His third touch, with some extra pace on it, took him away from goal, but also O’Shea. The shot that followed fizzed into the far corner.

Hazard’s delight at his latest moment of magic – and surely his whole performance – was evidenced as he instinctively and ecstatically ripped off his shirt and leaped in the air before being embraced by a host of awestruck team-mates.

'Eden was unplayable, creating and scoring goals,' said Gary Cahill post-match. 'He was absolutely fantastic and when he is playing like that there are very few better than him. He was the full package.'

Bardsley’s night got worse when he awkwardly put through his own net, perhaps fearful of Hazard on his shoulder, and though he got one back, Chelsea hung on to win 4-3.

All the talk afterwards was about Hazard. He registered game-high figures for shots on goal, key passes, pass completion rate and, obviously, successful dribbles, adding five more to his first-half tally. He was not dispossessed once.

‘We had a special Hazard,’ manager Jose Mourinho reflected. ‘Normally I don’t like to praise a player but, from the first minute, Eden was amazing. He was leaving people in trouble, he had ambition to score, coming inside to shoot. It was an incredible performance.

‘To my mind that was his best performance. He showed ambition from the first minute to the last. He was fantastic throughout.’

Unlike Mourinho, former Blue Poyet did not benefit from Hazard’s genius, but he was equally impressed.

‘Hazard was unplayable,’ said Poyet. ‘We doubled up and tripled up on him. We even changed the wide man. We tried everything to stop him but he was outstanding.

'It was the best display I have seen this season from an individual player, and I can’t remember a player performing at that level against me as a manager. It was spectacular.’

At the season's end, Hazard was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year, and the Chelsea Player of the Year. In the league, he had averaged 3.8 successful dribbles per game, well clear of the next player, Luis Suarez (2.8), played the most key passes (93), and been fouled on ten occasions more than anyone else.

Collective success would arrive in due course, but it was his individual magic that lit that season up.

‘I like the applause and when the fans come, they want to see a spectacle,’ Hazard said upon collecting the first of his record four Chelsea Player of the Years awards.

That was Eden Hazard. The man who put on a show. And we were the lucky viewers.