• Hazard acted as false nine and says team did not ‘play a good game’ • Marcos Alonso says Chelsea players have ‘attitude problem’

Eden Hazard believes he could have played for “three hours” against Manchester City in Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat and still not received the ball.

Bernardo Silva’s second-half goal sealed Manchester City’s win at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, with Hazard fielded out of position as Chelsea’s centre-forward.

Eden Hazard woe as Chelsea’s roughed-up false nine toils at Manchester City | Barney Ronay Read more

Hazard was isolated throughout and was substituted near the end. Afterwards he told the Belgian newspaper HLN: “When you leave the pitch you have the impression that you’ve ran [a lot], but that you haven’t played a game of football. That’s a pity. We could have played on for three hours, and I [still] wouldn’t touch a ball. It went a bit better only at the end: in the last 10-15 minutes we had more possession. But we should have tried to do that all game.”

Hazard has previously been asked to operate as a No 9 by the Chelsea manager,Antonio Conte, and although not appearing frustrated when he spoke to journalists after the game he indicated it is not his favoured position.

Asked if his manager believes he can be a lone striker, Hazard said: “I don’t know. When the manager plays me up front, I try to give everything. We haven’t played a good game. For me personally it’s difficult to play a good game when you only touch the ball three times.”

Hazard suggested his height made it difficult to compete with the City centre-backs Nicolás Otamendi and Aymeric Laporte. “I tried to jump [for long balls] but against Otamendi and Laporte it is not easy,” he said.

Bernardo Silva secures easy Manchester City victory over tame Chelsea Read more

“It was difficult. Against Barcelona we had at least a few chances. In that game we could have scored. Today we didn’t create any. It was complicated, certainly to find an answer to their pressing. Once we had the ball we were immediately surrounded by three or four players. We have also wasted some simple passes. We haven’t played a good game. We are going to work hard to perform better next week.”

The defeat was Chelsea’s fourth in fifth league outings and leaves the Premier League champions 25 points behind City, with Marcos Alonso criticising the team’s attitude. “The team had the conditions and quality to play much better and I don’t think we were at our best,” the Spaniard said.

“I think it’s an attitude problem and we have to make things clearer and improve quickly because we have nine [league] matches left and we want to be in the top four.

“I don’t think we have a problem with quality, we have shown in many matches this season that we can be competitive against any team, like we were against Barcelona a couple of weeks ago and if we don’t reach that kind of level of performance in every match it’s because of our attitude.”

Olivier Giroud, meanwhile, admitted that it had been difficult for Hazard on the day. “It is always easy to say that [we got it wrong] after the game,” Giroud said. “But if Eden had got an opportunity to score we could have said it was a great choice.

“It has been a bit difficult for Eden today but I am not the coach. The coach makes the team. We have to respect that and give our best, no matter who is on the pitch. We have some great players and a great team but obviously, today, Manchester City deserved to win.”