Praise for Hazard as Chelsea visits Spurs

Eden Hazard is one
course to becoming
one of the world's top
players, according to
Chelsea teammate
Filipe Luis as the Blues
travel to White Hart
Lane on Thursday.
Jose Mourinho's side
will attempt to respond to Sunday's 1-1 draw with
Southampton by claiming victory at Tottenham
Hotspur to guarantee they retain their place at the
head of the Premier League table.
And left-back Luis believes winger Hazard will be
one of the key figures as the Blues attempt to
extend their ten-game unbeaten run against their
London rivals.
The Brazil defender said: "Eden Hazard can easily
win a game for you and open a closed defence,
and he can be in the top three in the world in the
next few years because he has a lot of quality and
ambition to be there.
"I am really happy to be his teammate because he
is one of the greatest players I have played with."
Chelsea remain three points clear despite dropping
points at St Mary's Stadium thanks to Manchester
City's unexpected failure to beat struggling Burnley
at home in a 2-2 draw.
And Luis believes there were enough signs in the
performance at Southampton to suggest the Blues
can continue to fend off all challengers during the
second half of the campaign.
"We know that we lost two points in a difficult
stadium but the team did really well in the second
half, and if we play like we did in the second half
we can be in this situation until the end and keep
going at the top of the league," he told the club's
official website.
"It is going to be really difficult because when you
are top, everybody wants to take you off there and
play like Southampton did because they played
really well, but we did enough to win this game. If
we play like this, of course we can win things.
"We are still top of the league and the first half of
the season is over now.
"The second half of the competition is the more
difficult one and we have to keep the level really
high because we know it is going to be really
difficult, but we are happy because it is not easy
being top of the league for the whole competition
until now.
"We feel that if we keep playing in the second half
[of the season] like we are playing now we can be
there at the top of the league at the end."
Luis is being eased into his first season in England
and could make way for Cesar Azpilicueta after
starting at Southampton while Oscar could return
in place of John Obi Mikel.
Tottenham are beginning to find their feet under
new manager Mauricio Pochettino and Sunday's
scoreless draw with Manchester United
consolidated their standing in seventh, two points
off fourth place.
Pochettino's side are keen to avenge the one-
sided 3-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in
early December and winger Nacer Chadli is
convinced the outcome could be different this time
around.
Speaking to the club's official website, the Belgium
winger said: "Manchester United was a difficult
game. We showed patience and we had some
chances but we have to be realistic also - United
had the bigger chances in the first half and they
played well.
"In the end we did our best and we got one point,
but I think we put on a good performance.
"I think we have a lot of confidence at this moment,
we had a good draw on Sunday and we have been
winning games as well.
"No games are easy but Newcastle beat Chelsea so
why can't we beat them?" he added. "We have to
play our game and we'll see how we go."
Kyle Walker is back in contention and will
challenge Vlad Chiriches for the right-back slot.