Enzo Maresca returned silverware to Stamford Bridge last season, two loads of it. Chelsea also finished fourth in the Premier League to unlock the doorway into the Champions League.
It’s been an up-and-down start to the 2025/26 campaign, but there’s little sense that Chelsea have been hit with a case of second-season syndrome, instead finding their footing after a summer of change.
There is enough on show for the fans to remain confident in the project. Before the international break, the Londoners beat Liverpool, and it was Estevao Willian who wheeled away in celebration after that last-gasp strike against the champions, Chelsea making their pressure and optimism count and keeping pace on the fringes of the early title pack.
However, if the Maresca era is to reach new heights, the Blues will need a ready-made superstar to lead the way toward glory. Someone, perhaps, in the vein of Eden Hazard.
Hazard's Chelsea legacy
Hazard is one of the greatest players to ever grace the Premier League. He might have retired relatively early, but the Belgian maverick gave everything across seven seasons for Chelsea, and his record-breaking departure to Real Madrid in 2019 led Joe Cole to hail him as “the greatest player the club has ever had.”
The 34-year-old played 352 matches for Chelsea, scoring 110 goals and supplying 88 assists. No player in Premier League history has completed more take-ons in a single campaign than him (180), as per Squawka.
Quite simply, his dribbling and directness left nothing to be desired; what more could be demanded from one of the greatest to do it?
The two-time league champion also won two Europa League titles among further domestic honours. Four times he was named Chelsea’s Player of the Year, and he was crowned the Premier League Player of the Season in 2014/15 after guiding his side to the trophy.
In some ways, Estevao may be a new incarnation of the fleet-footed winger, but Hazard was a talisman who transcended his positional role, and there’s another within Maresca’s squad who is shaping up to be the next version.
Chelsea's new version of Eden Hazard
While Estevao has the world at his feet, it’s important not to overburden the 18-year-old. That said, Cole Palmer is already settled into his talismanic berth at Stamford Bridge, and he has the quality and experience to lift Chelsea to new heights and emulate Hazard.
Palmer, 23, joined the Blues from Manchester City just over two years ago, penning a long-term contract off the back of a £42.5m fee.
Ice-cold from the start, the England international’s maiden campaign in the capital was the stuff of legend, fast-tracking himself to the overhanging posters across the Premier League advertising boards. He was, in other words, instantly among the most talented and marketable players in the country.
Given that Palmer is still so young, hailed by Sky Sports’ Nick Wright as being ‘Chelsea’s new leader’, the rangy playmaker might not have Hazard’s same blistering speed, but he’s got the skills and potency in the final third to guide Chelsea toward heights more illustrious than have been reached already under Maresca’s wing.
Indeed, it’s curious to note that Palmer has actually outperformed Hazard across his opening two terms at the outfit, when comparing the superstars’ respective starts to life in London.
Games
111
97
Goals
30
43
Assists
31
29
G/A Rate
0.55
0.74
Trophies
2x
2x
Maybe this underscores just how impressive a start to life at Chelsea Palmer has made. There was a reason that Jamie Carragher described the Three Lions star as “the best player in the Premier League” one year ago, after all.
Having struggled with injury across the opening months of the new campaign, Palmer has only featured four times across all competitions, with two goals scored. Despite his limited showing thus far, Palmer has been praised by Sky Sports’ Jamie Redknapp for a “world-class” performance against Bayern Munich in September.
But he’s a hero for the club, alright, and could leave a legacy that ends up rivalling and maybe even surpassing that of Hazard.