• Premier League

Hazard draws positives from West Brom result

Eden Hazard claims Chelsea's draw at West Brom on Tuesday should be viewed as one point gained and not two lost.

Victor Anichebe's late header gave relegation-haunted Baggies a 1-1 draw many observers believed they merited, with the in-form Hazard suggesting the draw should be hailed as a positive step forward in Chelsea's title push.

"It's still a point, even if many people are disappointed," Hazard told Chelsea's website. "I think this is a point that will count. There were some good things but others less so.

"You cannot win every game and it was important we didn't lose. We'll improve in the future and we will try to win the next game. We'll see what happens when the other teams play."

Hazard felt West Brom's eagerness to contain Chelsea made it tough for Jose Mourinho's men to express themselves at the Hawthorns, as he compared their approach to the defensive game plan deployed by Sam Allardyce and West Ham as they drew 0-0 at Stamford Bridge last month.

"It was a puzzling game. At 1-0, I thought we were managing the match well but we couldn't get the second goal which would have given us protection and then the game became difficult," added Hazard.

"I tried to play, we tried to play, but it was a very difficult game. It was a complicated whenever I had the ball because there were two or three opponents there. We could have got one or two more goals if we had been a little smarter with our final passes.

"They had a plan to defend, as was the case when we played West Ham. It was a similar situation except at the end West Brom pushed a lot, their crowd got behind them and it became complicated."

Meanwhile, Chelsea new-boy Nemanja Matic has claimed his side are eager to put themselves in a position to challenge for the Premier League title.

"We have a young team and we are not favourites, but if we have a chance to be champions we want to take it," he stated. "We always believe, we just try to improve and give our best.

"We'll fight until the end of the season. We need to take it game by game and play as well as we can in order to win matches. At the end of the season we'll see if we can be champions."

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