Player Ratings: Hazard and Fabregas shine as Chelsea disappoint on the South Coast

Hazard continues his run of very highly rated performances with his fourth straight 8.0+ and his seventh Man of the Match of the season, which is three more than the next highest (Oscar, 4).  That day off against Sporting Lisbon is looking a better and better decision by the minute.

Hazard ends the first half of the season as your highest rated player.  And it's not even close.

Incidentally, following a rare off-day from Nemanja Matic and a slightly less rare off-day from Diego Costa, Cesc stands alone in second place not just for this game, but for the first half of the season as well.  With yet another assist giving him 17 in 25 games (in all competitions), this is entirely unsurprising.  That he's worked out so well so far, and even managed to not look entirely useless defensively after a bit of molding from Mourinho is perhaps a bit more surprising.

Now, he just has to keep it up in the second half of the season...

Much like the recently (truly, madly, dearly, permanently) departed Fernando Torres, Willian is saddled with a rather outsized transfer fee that he probably won't ever quite live up to.  Unlike the Jewel of the Mattress Makers, Willian is generally a useful cog in the Chelsea machine.

He may cause fairly deep divides among the fanbase with his lack of measurable scoring output, but certainly at least as long as Andre Schurrle continues to pretend to be a crappy football player, Willian remains the clear and only choice for the ring wing.