The Blues winger thinks the Argentine will provide more attacking firepower and suggested he could have a similar impact to Diego Costa
Eden Hazard has expressed his delight at
Chelsea's decision to sign Gonzalo Higuain and has backed the Argentine to score plenty of goals for the club.
The 31-year-old wasn't registered in time to play against
Tottenham on Thursday, with Maurizio Sarri's side having recorded a 4-2 penalty shootout win to advance to the
Carabao Cup final.
"For me as a winger, I like to play with top, top players," he told reporters at Stamford Bridge. "With Chelsea I had the chance to play with one of the best, Diego Costa, for three years, and I think Higuain is one of the best.
"I also like to play when Olivier [Giroud] is playing, when Alvaro [Morata] was playing. My position is more winger than No.9, so I just try to have fun with the striker and the other winger. When the striker is there it’s good for me.
"For my position, yes. We all know I like to play the give-and-go with my striker, so if the striker just goes deep I’m going to be in trouble! Giroud understands this and that’s why I like to play with him, and I think Higuain is going to do the same.
"He’s a fantastic striker, when you see his career he scored a lot of goals everywhere - Madrid,
Napoli,
Juventus. He always scored goals and he’s going to do the same here. This season we are playing good, but sometimes we just miss one guy to score one goal.
"We had a couple of games where we played well but didn’t score, and at the end we finished with zero goals [despite] creating chances. I think in games sometimes we have a lot of chances. Like today, if we have a striker who can score three goals, the game finishes 5-1.
"At the moment it’s not the case but Higuain can do that. He’s a top striker who can score everywhere. I think when Olivier is playing he tries to do his best for the team. He’s more like a team player than just a striker. Diego was sometimes not this kind of player where you play a one-two but in the box he was amazing.
"He’d just score one goal and in the end if you won, you have three points. That’s what we need. I think Higuain is this kind of player. He can link with the wingers and midfield but he can also be the proper striker."
Sarri had claimed prior to Chelsea's win over Spurs that his players were "extremely difficult to motivate", although Hazard, who faced particular criticism from his manager, insists he's just focusing on playing well for the club.
"In the dressing room, most of the players have won almost everything," he added. "We are big players and we know when we are not playing well and when we are playing good. In the end, we just need to look in the same way and try to win games. That’s it.
"My reaction is to be on the pitch and try to do my best. Managers talked about me in the past, this manager talked about me, the next manager is going to talk about me, so my target is just to play football. I don’t care what people think.
"I just want to do my best and today [against Tottenham] I did. I understand when the team is not playing well, the manager has to criticise the players. I don’t like to say 'I’m the best player', but it’s always this kind of player who can put the team [in a position to] win the game [who get criticised].
"I just try to do my best. I’m not focused on what the manager says. I don’t care about that to be fair. If the manager has to say something he will say it. We are big men so we can talk together, no problem at all. I look to the future and I will do my best again.
"We didn’t talk about that [Sarri's public comments after
Arsenal]. I don’t have a problem with it at all. The manager thinks what they want to think. For me, the best response is to be on the pitch and to win games. I did it."
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