Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri said Eden Hazard may be the best player in Europe, after the Belgian scored a hat-trick as the Blues went top of the Premier League with victory over Cardiff. Hazard scored twice in seven minutes before half-time, after Sol Bamba volleyed home for the visitors, to help Chelsea make it five wins from five so far this season.
He scored his third with a late penalty after Bamba brought down Willian, who added the Blues' fourth from long range. Saturday's (Sep 15) victory means Chelsea have started a Premier League season with five successive wins for the fourth time, and first since 2010.
Defeat for Cardiff extends their winless run to six games, their worst spell since Neil Warnock was appointed manager in October 2016.
A fine start for Chelsea - the stats
* Chelsea have won their opening five games of a Premier League season for the fourth time - after 2005-06, 2009-10 and 2010-11 - more than any other team.
* This is the first time since 1921-22 that Cardiff have opened an English top-flight season without winning any of their first five games.
* Warnock has gone 11 Premier League games without a win as manager for the first time (W0 D5 L6).
* Cardiff are winless in seven matches in all competitions (W0 D3 L4), their worst run under Warnock; they last went on a longer run without victory between January and February 2015 (eight games).
* Since his Premier League debut in August 2012, Hazard (115) has been directly involved in more goals than any other midfielder in the competition (74 goals, 41 assists).
* Hazard is the fourth player to score more than one Premier League hat-trick for Chelsea (also Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink).
* Bamba became the oldest player to score his first Premier League goal (33y 244d) since Zlatan Ibrahimovic in August 2016 (34y 316d).
* Giroud provided two assists in a single Premier League game for the third time in his career and first since January 2017 against Bournemouth.
- Source: News websites
