Chelsea have been “on fire” this season, Eden Hazard says, and what is fanning those flames is clear. They are determined to see this one through: win the Premier League, add the FA Cup and re-establish themselves. Get over the trauma of the last campaign. Make good, in fact. “We are Chelsea,” Hazard explains. “We have to be at the top... talk on the pitch, walk on the pitch. And win games.”

The ambition, the desire to succeed is burning – and not just because Chelsea have that human inferno, manager Antonio Conte, on the touchline driving them on, stoking the blaze. “We all have something to prove,” Hazard says.

It is a sunny afternoon at Chelsea’s training ground in Cobham and Hazard, the sunniest of players, has just been presented with an award for Premier League Goal of the Month – his superb solo effort against Arsenal in a 3-1 victory. The Belgian has already submitted an entry for this month’s award with his devastating, counter-attack strike last Monday away at West Ham United.

There was also a wonderful, highlights-reel moment in that match when Hazard flicked the ball from an awkward height to N’Golo Kanté off his back. “It was something natural,” he explains. “I did it once before, in France, it’s for the fans.” But Hazard says that with a grin. It was not, really, for the supporters. It was actually the best way for him to execute “a good pass”. “Because if we had lost the ball and conceded a goal then I would have been in trouble with Antonio,” Hazard adds.