Chelsea 2 Manchester City 1: Hazard brace keeps The Blues 7 points clear

The Blues were able to quickly return to winning ways four days on from their shock defeat to Crystal Palace here, ensuring that Tottenham Hotspur – late winners at Swansea City tonight – remain seven points adrift in second place with just eight games left to play.

Sergio Aguero looked to set up another awkward evening for the hosts when cancelling out Hazard’s 10th-minute opener, but the Belgian added a second before the first half was out as City’s eight-game unbeaten run came to an end in West London.

The Blues made just the one change from that rare setback to Palace here at the weekend, bringing in Kurt Zouma at the back and pushing Cesar Azpilicueta into a wing-back role, while City surprisingly brought in Vincent Kompany and Fabian Delph from off.

Chelsea were ahead from their first real attempt of the evening as Hazard swept home from an Azpilicueta cut-back, getting the better of a wrong-footed Wilfredo Caballero due to a slight nick off Kompany on its way through.

In 11 of the 15 matches Chelsea have taken the lead this season they have now gone on to win, with the only loss in that sequence coming here against Palace on Saturday.

City grew into the game far more from that point on and were playing more like the home side at times, creating their first chance a quarter of the way through when Aguero wiggled through but was kept out by Thibaut Courtois in a routine manner.

Fernandinho and Cesc Fabregas came close to finding the net for their respective sides, with the latter’s deflected shot taking a heavy deflection off ex-teammate Gael Clichy and dropping on to the roof of the net.

The Citizens did not have to wait too much longer to level things up thanks to a howler from Courtois, who cleared the ball straight to David Silva and could only parry the eventual shot from the Spaniard into the path of Aguero six yards out.

Leroy Sane used his pace to get on the end of an inch-perfect ball from Silva moments later, but Courtois made amends for his earlier error by keeping out the winger’s delicate chip.

At a time when City were pressing for their second of the night, some quick footwork from Pedro in the area drew a foul from Fernandinho – referee Mike Dean rightly pointing to the spot.

Hazard was initially denied from the 12-yard mark by Caballero down to his left but was quickly on the rebound to tuck home his 13th of the season, putting Chelsea en route to a 20th win in their last 24 outings.

Home boss Antonio Conte made a tactical switch at the break, bringing on Nemanja Matic for Zouma and shifting Pedro into his makeshift wing-back slot on the right.

There was almost an instant response from City in the second half as Kompany peeled off Matic and saw his looping header bounce back off the bar, before Fernandinho volleyed over from a hooked Delph pass in front of goal.

The next chance of a quieter second half fell the way of John Stones, who could only head the ball right down the middle when picked out from a corner, while up the other end Pedro’s curler did not have enough on it to get the better of Caballero.

Hazard had a glorious chance to seal the win 15 minutes from time when picked out by a pass intended for Fabregas, only to blast his shot high over the bar to miss out on a hat-trick.

City kept their best chances until added time, as Aguero was kept out by Courtois with a half-volley at the back post and Stones failed to convert from close range when again picked out from a corner.