Emile Smith Rowe says he based his game around Chelsea legend who was absolutely fearless

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With Chelsea being one of English football’s biggest clubs, it is natural that several of the current Premier League stars were inspired by some of their former superstars.

Names like Eden Hazard, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Cesc Fabregas and John Terry instantly spring to mind — who were all some of the best players in the world during the peak of their powers.

While Chelsea are currently sitting in sixth place in the Premier League and have not won either the Premier League or the Champions League since 2021, that was not the case back in the day.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
6	ChelseaChelsea	25	12	7	6	47	34	13	43

The West Londoners were serial winners and the prospect of going trophyless for even a season seemed unacceptable at Stamford Bridge.

Such high standards seemed to stem from their world-class core of players.

One of them who certainly led by example was Eden Hazard.

Emile Smith Rowe says Eden Hazard inspired his playing style

Hazard might have not raised his voice in the dressing room as he widely known to be a carefree character.

But on the pitch, the Belgian meant business and dazzled fans, pundits and aspiring players across the globe.

One of them was Emile Smith Rowe, who based his game around Hazard, who Thibaut Courtois lauded recently as well.

Smith Rowe gave Hazard his props for being fearless and a joy to watch while speaking to the Premier League’s in-house media: “I’ll probably say Eden Hazard, players like that. Obviously, he’s a winger and stuff but for me, just knowing, the way that he dribbles, he used to just really enjoy himself on the pitch and not worry about making mistakes and just going again.”

“The resilience that he had was just amazing.”

The retired winger continues to be celebrated by the new generation, with Anthony Gordon raving about Eden Hazard’s incredible natural talent as well. While Jeremie Frimpong claimed Hazard was better than Neymar, suggesting how highly he rates him.

Smith Rowe is better than Hazard statistically at the same age

Comparing Smith Rowe to Hazard seems like a pointless exercise as the latter is one of the best players of his generation.

But famously, in the 2015/2016 season, the former Lille wideman suffered an unprecedented fall from grace after having won the PFA Players’ Player of the Season award in the previous campaign.

When comparing Hazard’s league campaign to that of Smith Rowe’s current one, the latter surprisingly has better goal and assist numbers at the same stage.

Smith Rowe has five goals and two assists in the league this season while Hazard had just two assists at the time.

But the following season, the two-time Premier League winner returned to his brilliant best and as they say, the rest is history.

For Smith Rowe, looking at the decline Hazard suffered should inspire him to push on and hit the next level.