Hazard well placed to take Chelsea league scoring crown

The second coming of The Special One brings with it a whole host of questions for the impending season. Will he repeat the success of his first stint? Can he continue to get the best out of Frank Lampard? Which manager will he slur first?

However one of the most intriguing from a betting point of view revolves around which King’s Road hit man will lead the side in league scoring, and Eden Hazard can lay serious claims to the crown.

As with any new managerial appointment, uncertainties surround his choice of regular starters and that is certainly the case with the three forwards at Mourinho’s disposal.

Romelu Lukaku, Demba Ba and Fernando Torres are all clambering over each other like overweight kids at an ice cream van to become Mourinho’s new Didier Drogba but none can make a serious case for the league-scoring crown.

Lukaku’s efforts on loan at West Brom last season, where he beat the keeper 17 times, makes him the 2/1 favourite for the title but in his first season back at the Bridge it’s hard to see the young pretender usurping the more senior men in Ba and Torres on a regular basis.

Torres and Ba combined for just 10 league goals between them last season and with rotation likely to be a regular pill for the striking trio to swallow this year, a goalscoring rhythm will be hard to find.

Therefore as the Chelsea player most likely to nail down a starting spot, Hazard’s 8/1 to lead all the boys in blue looks tremendous value. With one season’s Premier League experience under his belt, Hazard can easily better his nine goals in the league last season and should return to the imperious goalscoring form of his final campaign in Lille, where he bagged 20 league goals.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date