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| Jose Mourinho seems set not to pick Hazard unless he can prove his defensive worth |
EDEN HAZARD paid the price on Saturday for not pulling his finger out as his manager Jose Mourinho criticised the Chelsea winger for his lack of workrate.
Mourinho showed he can be The Ruthless One as well by revealing that he dropped last year's player of the year because the young Belgian didn't do enough defending.
That, his boss hinted, was one of the reasons Chelsea have been in the pickle they have been.
Hazard was banished to the bench for most of yesterday as Mourinho sought to plug the leaks that have seen Chelsea's hopes of winning thePremier League again disappear so dramatically.
And until he steps up to the hard work plate that's where he is likely to stay.
Mourinho's rescue plan appears to have worked a treat, even though sorry Villa gave them a helping hand along the way.
He said: "I left out Hazard because we were conceding lots of goals. We needed to defend better. We need our midfielders to be just as worried in the central area of the pitch, not worrying about compensation on the left or right.
"Pedro and Willian did amazing work today and allowed the midfielders to be very comfortable and have Ramires and Fabregas controlling totally the centre of the pitch.
"It was a tactical decision. Leaving super quality on the bench, but bringing tactical discipline and hoping the team could be solid.
"And I will; continue that way until he (Hazard) comes in our direction and tries to emulate the same work that Willian and Pedro put in."
Mourinho also revealed how he had told all his players not to not be selfish and think only of themselves.
He added: "I asked them to look at the picture in a different way to bring results back. When we have better stability in our confidence levels, then we'll go back to what we were."
To be honest, until Brad Guzon gifted Chelsea the lead there looked no guarantees that the new way was working.
The keeper's clearance was a shocker that Willian punced on - with a little help from Joleon Lescott as well - to set up Diego Costa in front of a gaping goal.
Mourinho's Mr Dependable won't get too many easier goals this season.
To be fair, Chelsea barely deserved that. Villa's Rudy Gestede had home hearts in their mouths on a couple of earlier occasions and he and his teammates probably had good reason to feel a bit aggrieved at going in at half time a goal down.
But it was that man Costa again who eased the champions' nerves - even though Chelsea's second on 54 minutes was credited as an own goal by Alan Hutton.
Cesc Fabregas's superb defence-splitting ball to Costa was the best thing Chelsea had done all afternoon up to then and the way the controversial striker brought it down certainly deserved a goal.
But poor Hutton got his leg in the way of the final shot and this time Guzan was blameless as the ball was deflected past him.
Tempers frayed a bit in the technical area for a while, but it was all handbags stuff - especially after Ray Wilkins, back at The Bridge with Villa this time, played peacemaker.
How long he and Sherwood will stay around to continue doing that is anyone's guess.
As the Villa boss added: "I thought we were better than them before that mistake, but you give a poor goal away like that... 85% of the teams who concede first lose the game. It was a poor one to give away.
"But Sooner or later we need to start picking up three points. We lost again and are in a perilous position, but there were positives out there.
“I've seen those reports about my job on the line, But I've had no indication that the clock's ticking. As a manager, you need to win matches. If you don't you'll invariably lose your job somewhere along the line.
"I'll take my share of responsibility, but it's a team effort. We need to stick together.”
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