For 20 days, Maurizio Sarri was worried, but as soon as Chelsea’s new head coach spoke to Eden Hazard he realised why the club were never seriously concerned they would lose their star man this summer.

Hazard fears his Real Madrid dream may have died and yet his mood has at no stage matched the colour of the blue shirt he has started a seventh season in.

It is now up to Sarri and Chelsea to convince Hazard to sign a new contract, and the charm offensive started on Friday when the Italian claimed the forward could become the best player in the world.

“We are talking about one of the most important players in Europe now but, in my opinion, he can improve more,” said Sarri. “He can be the first. It depends on him. The best for technical skill, the best for scoring, but I think it depends only on him. On his mind.”

Hazard will get a hero’s reception when he steps on to the Stamford Bridge pitch for the first home game of the campaign against Arsenal on Saturday. Cesar Azpilicueta will once again be captain, but Sarri has not ruled out making Hazard his full-time captain, which would complete quite a turnaround since the Belgian tested the water over a move to Real. Fans feared the worst when Hazard announced “it might be time to try something different”, following Belgium’s World Cup play-off victory over England, but Chelsea were already adamant he was going nowhere.