Hazard rejects suggestions that he feigned injury before being substituted away to Leicester, Mourinho’s last game in charge at Chelsea

Eden Hazard’s travails during a tortuous season are a microcosm of Chelsea’s calamitous campaign, as he is man enough to admit. “I felt a little bit guilty,” he says ruefully of José Mourinho’s sacking, revealing that after the manager’s departure he sent him a text message to apologise for his drop in standards.

The cause of that dip remains something of a mystery even to Hazard, but there is no doubting its extent or its effects, as he discusses with commendable honesty. Just as Chelsea’s collapse from runaway champions to lower mid-table mediocrity is unprecedented, it is difficult to recall a leading player losing form so suddenly and spectacularly.

There have been several one-season wonders who failed to back up remarkable feats in the Premier