Eden Hazard's match-winning performance against West Ham proved exactly why the Chelsea star will be such a big loss to the Premier League if Real Madrid sign the Belgian forward this summer, according to Gary Neville.
Hazard was on top form at Stamford Bridge on Monday night, scoring a superb brace to seal a 2-0 win and send the Blues third in the Premier League table.
The Belgian star has been linked with a £100million transfer to Real Madrid - a move which looks increasingly likely given that Zinedine Zidane has returned to the Bernabeu, along with the fact that Hazard will be out of contract in summer 2020.
Chelsea coach Maurizio Sarri admitted after the game that it will be difficult to prevent Hazard from leaving if he wants a new challenge, and former Manchester United and England defender Neville feels that the forward's departure would be not just a loss for Chelsea, but for the Premier League as a whole.
Speaking about Hazard's first goal - where he ghosted past Declan Rice and Mark Noble, and flummoxed Fabian Balbuena, Angelo Ogbonna and Ryan Fredericks before coolly finishing - Neville told Sky Sports: “When you see a goal like the first, you feel sad in some ways because there's been so much talk in this past week of Real Madrid.
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"Once Real Madrid start getting linked with the player, and so strongly, and there's body language that suggests that Hazard wants to go, you really do feel this could be his last five Premier League games, and that's a real problem for the Premier League as we keep losing our best players to Real Madrid and Barcelona."
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher went one further by declaring that Hazard has outgrown the west London club, saying: "I don't think you can ever stop players moving to Real Madrid and Barcelona.
"I think most players see that as the pinnacle, and it's happened at both our clubs, Manchester United and Liverpool….I think Hazard is too good for Chelsea, right now. He's that good a player."
