Chelsea duo Eden Hazard and Alvaro Morata are developing a 'stunning' understanding, says Pat Nevin

Star duo | Morata and Hazard
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Vaishali Bhardwaj22 November 2017

Pat Nevin believes the on-field partnership that Eden Hazard and Alvaro Morata have struck up is "pretty stunning".

Morata has hit the ground running since joining Chelsea from Real Madrid this summer and, since the return of Hazard from injury, the pair have shown a burgeoning understanding of each other's game on the pitch.

Indeed, this was demonstrated on Saturday when Hazard's shot towards West Brom's goal was parried back out to Morata, who finished off from close range to hand Chelsea the lead at the Hawthorns.

Morata's flick-on from Cesc Fabregas' long ball was then latched upon by Hazard, who doubled the Blues' lead as the match ended 4-0 to Antonio Conte's side.

Nevin has praised Hazard and Morata's on-pitch relationship but insists that Conte must take a lot of the credit for changing his formation and having the Belgian winger play off the Spanish striker in a 3-5-2 set-up.

He wrote in his column on Chelsea's website: "The burgeoning understanding between the front two of Eden and Alvaro is pretty stunning on occasions now.

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"The Spaniard’s little back-through-the-legs flick made for one of the best assists of the season. It was world class. The sheer number of goals and chances being created for each other is fabulous and it should be underlined that Antonio Conte must be applauded for seeing the possibilities first.

"You look at Eden last season and your first thought wouldn’t necessarily be, ‘I think he could do better playing in a different role, I better move him infield’.

"It is a partnership that will continue to improve but then by crowbarring Cesc into the side, he is also perfectly capable of building just as good an understanding with both of the strikers in terms of creation.

"It is quite a turnaround in a short time and of course we know there are a variety of reasons. Eden, Cesc, Alvaro and N’Golo Kante all fully fit and available together would improve any team on the planet.

"There are now plenty of hugely talented options on the bench, but it seems that those players moving into a 3-5-2 type of system has been the proverbial game changer above everything else."

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