Eden Hazard plays away the blues as Chelsea get back to winning ways against West Bromwich Albion

Chelsea 3 West Bromwich Albion 0: Victor Moses scored either side of Hazard's double

Eden Hazard was in supreme form on Monday night (AFP/Getty Images)

Just when everyone expected it to really descend into one of those typical Chelsea crises, they got an all-too typical home win. Or, at least, that’s what the 3-0 final score and the fantastic Eden Hazard made it look like.

This was really a night when it genuinely could have been 3-0 in the other direction had the ball itself moved a few inches at key moments. West Brom had put it up to a ropey Chelsea that much. It’s just as well that Hazard can make the ball move pretty much as he likes, and as prettily as he likes.

He scored the opening and closing goals of this game with supreme finishes, the first from an encouraging link-up with Olivier Giroud. Hazard in that sense is anything but typical. He’s all too special, and maybe the best thing about this team right now.

That is something the under-pressure Antonio Conte doesn’t have to fix, but this game showed there’s still so much for the Italian to work, still so much that might cause problems.

It will just have compounded West Brom’s sense of frustration, especially after Daniel Sturridge had to go off after just two minutes and 57 seconds.

Giroud and Hazard linked up superbly for the first (Getty Images)

It did look at the start that Chelsea were just picking up from where they left off at Watford, even though Conte was forced into picking a different team with the injury to Marcos Alonso. There were the exact same gaps in the make-up of the side, they were suffering the same problems. West Brom had more than a few moments of danger in the opening few minutes, with some dangerous balls into the box, what looked a foul on Jay Rodriguez from Cesc Fabregas and then a bad miss from the same striker.

It might have got as bad as that had the chance fell to the man that Rodriguez replaced, except the unfortunate Sturridge had to go off.

Chelsea were meanwhile just fortunate to still be on level terms. It was just as if the cohesion of the team was wrong, that it just wasn’t joined up in the same way as before. New to this, Giroud was showing some of his ropier old form from Arsenal, missing one big chance laid on by Hazard.

But that’s the thing. While Chelsea have Hazard, they’ll have hope. He did play a brilliant one-two with Giroud on 25 minutes to give Conte’s side the lead.

No one could accuse Giroud of backing out of anything, either, and he ended the first half with a bandage around his head. Aside from the fact there is a wider argument that Alvaro Morata is a more reticent attacker in that regard, Chelsea - and Hazard - did seem to be benefitting from Giroud’s intelligence of lay-off.

Hazard gave Ben Foster no chance (AFP/Getty Images)

It does look like he already understands a Conte striker role more than Morata. That was one area they did look better.

Chelsea also benefitted from more West Brom misses. Just before the hour, Salomon Rondon did well - or, as Conte was perhaps very justifiably arguing, did very aggressively - to get around Andreas Christensen and give himself a one-on-one with Thibaut Courtois. The goalkeeper did supremely to make a stop, but it was still an opportunity that favoured the forward. From the resulting corner, then, Jonny Evans headed just over.

This was the concern for Chelsea even allowing for the final score: how easily it could have been 3-1 or 4-1 to the much lower placed opposition. It was that shaky, they were that unconvincing.

Victor Moses added the second (Getty)

Rather than a night when everything went right for the opposition, though, it was finally a night when everything went right for Chelsea and Conte. That was the case for second goal, as a Fabregas flick from a Moses run was deflected… but straight back into the path of the wing-back. Moses easily finished, and the fans started singing the manager’s name.

Hazard then once more made the ball sing. Having spun one way to make it look as if he was going to open out with a shot, the playmaker then wrong-footed everyone - and most conspicuously Ben Foster - for the ball to fly into the near corner.

Hazard added Chelsea's third to make certain of the win (Getty)

Morata had by then been brought on for the battered Giroud and, now that he finally has a proper competitor for a starting place, probably felt he needs to raise the bar. So, he went and hit the bar, albeit from distance with a brilliant strike. It was quite an effort from a striker who still badly needs a goal.

This was quite a final score from a team that badly needed a win. They got it, but have still got problems.

They also, more importantly, have Hazard.