Eden Hazard is finding Jose Mourinho's mind games tough to take... and he's not the only one showing signs of rebellion 

• Hazard is the quiet man of English football, one who deliberately avoids the noise and politics that dominates Jose Mourinho's Chelsea dressing room
• The Chelsea boss publicly picks on players in his own squad and has constant fights with the football establishment
• Hazard wants to play with a smile on his face, to enjoy the game again, play with a sense of adventure, and be part of a successful dressing room
• Ever since he arrived from Lille in 2012, Hazard has always made it clear that he wants to play his football without aggravation or distraction
• As he discovered when he was dropped from the team to face Aston Villa, his altruistic vision for life at Chelsea under Mourinho is misguided

By Neil Ashton for the Daily Mail

Published: 17:08 EST, 22 October 2015 | Updated: 04:42 EST, 23 October 2015

Each morning Eden Hazard leaves the family home and makes his way to Chelsea’s training ground in his club-sponsored Audi.

This is the quiet man of English football, one who deliberately avoids the noise and politics that dominates the Chelsea dressing room under Jose Mourinho.

The Chelsea boss publicly picks on players in his own squad and has constant fights with the football establishment, but Hazard prefers to keep a low profile.

When training finishes for the day, the Belgium playmaker is one of the first to dart out of the door, eating his lunch with the rest of the squad in the canteen before speeding back to his family unit. 

Eden Hazard looks to have lost the sparkle which catapulted Chelsea to the Premier League title last time out

Hazard heads back to his family after training and attempts to lead the quiet life away from the football pitch

Hazard wants to play with a smile on his face, to enjoy the game again, play with a sense of spirit and adventure, and be part of a successful dressing room.

His settled lifestyle, along with his consistent performances on the pitch for Chelsea, are among the chief reasons he went on to win the PFA Players’ Player of the Year and Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year awards.

Ever since he arrived from Lille in the summer of 2012, Hazard has always made it clear that he wants to play his football without aggravation or distraction.

As he discovered when he was dropped from the team to face Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge last weekend, his altruistic vision for life at Chelsea under Mourinho is misguided.

The Chelsea manager is deliberately rattling players, carefully selecting targets after the defending champions failed to set the pace in the Premier League.

Hazard did return to the team for the Champions League group game with Dinamo Kiev on Tuesday evening, when there were occasional flashes of his old magic.

Hazard looks up and attempts to conduct an attack during the goalless draw with Dynamo Kiev

Hazard drives forward during the Champions League outing in Ukraine and hopes to regain his top form

He accepts that he has made a sluggish start to the season, falling some way short of the standards he set when he became the most prominent player in the Chelsea team. Hazard is not alone in that respect, though.

He believes his form will return if he is allowed to work it all out in his own way and without all the fuss that being a Chelsea player involves.

Mourinho’s critical comments — ‘I continue that way (without him), or he comes in our direction’ — came as a surprise. Hazard is not the only one who appears to be rebelling. You have to go back to last season, after Chelsea had beaten 5-0 Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium in one of their most impressive performances under Mourinho, to trace some of the issues in this forward line.

‘The Three Amigos’ of Hazard, Oscar and Willian — as they have come to be known around the club — were convinced that Chelsea should play a more expansive, expressive style of football.

The trio believed they had the measure of their rivals in the Premier League and wanted to be a touch more extravagant as they hurtled towards the title.

Jose Mourinho gees on Hazard during the latter stages of Chelsea's march to the title last season

Mourinho's recent comments have targeted several players, but Hazard appears to have taken them badly

Some were more voluble than others, but the end result was for Mourinho to make the team even more resilient, to make sure they crossed the line ahead of their rivals.

The tactical restrictions have always been a theme of Mourinho’s hugely successful teams, with each player given clear guidance and instructions on their role within the set-up.

It is the principal reason he is such a successful coach, but his methods give his players plenty to think about when they hit the road after training each day.

For some, it eventually drives them mad.

Jose Mourinho has convinced himself that he has long-term job security at Chelsea, but his position is nowhere near as stable as he makes out.

Carlo Ancelotti told friends that the pressure of life at Chelsea was ‘intolerable’ and nothing has changed since to make life any easier for the managers.

Carlo Ancelotti worked under Silvio Berlusconi at AC Milan but said the pressure at Chelsea was 'intolerable'

Mind games for Gunners

Arsene Wenger uses a psychologist to help his team prepare for important matches and the idea of marginal gains has now extended to the subliminal messages being used on the front cover of their matchday programme. A copy of each programme is laid out on top of the players’ training kit in the home team dressing room for each game and it is one of the first things they see when they walk in.

After the Olympiacos shambles the editorial team were instructed to promote unity at the club by writing ‘FOCUSED’ on the cover ahead of the fixture with Manchester United the following Sunday. They won 3-0. On Tuesday, for the clash with Bayern Munich, another picture of the players collectively celebrating a goal was used, with the message ‘TOGETHER’ slapped across the front cover. This time they won 2-0.

The Arsenal matchday programmes for the games with Manchester United (left) and Bayern Munich 

Arsenal are refusing to say whether it is Wenger or another member of staff behind the development, but they have confirmed that it is a deliberate, subtle strategy.

No doubt Sir Dave Brailsford, the master of sport’s marginal gains, approves.

What I'm hearing...

1 Steve Coppell has not had a sniff of another job in the game since the cult-of-the-personality manager developed in English football.

The former Crystal Palace and Reading boss, well known in the game for ignoring all the hype and hullabaloo and getting on with the job in hand, is now shuttling back and forth to Delhi to commentate on Indian Premier League games.

Steve Coppell is still out of the game and bides his time by commentating on games in India

2 Mauricio Pochettino has been hitting the fitness centre at Tottenham’s swish new training facility for an hour each afternoon after his wife told him he had put on a bit of timber.

The Tottenham manager is a big foodie, but he has cut down on the calories over the past few weeks and now spends an hour on the treadmill after the players finish training each day.

Mauricio Pochettino has been hitting the gym and cutting down on food in a bid to lose weight

3 There is a theory that Robin van Persie’s dramatic loss of form in front of goal can be attributed to a long-standing knee injury that dates back to his time as a Manchester United player.

Van Persie had to manage the problem during his United career and the injury, which affects his stronger, more dominant left leg, has to be managed daily.

Robin van Persie has had a miserable time in Turkey but a knee problem is understood to the be the root cause

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