Eden Hazard's Hatter Steals the Show at Stamford Bridge

Eden Hazard’s star shone brighter this afternoon at Stamford Bridge, as Chelsea waltzed to get an easy 4-1 win over Cardiff.

In the process, the Blues maintained their position at top of the Premiership table with five wins in five matches.

Only Liverpool joins them with the maximum points at this early stage, with Chelsea ahead on goal difference.

Of course, as this is still September, that's splitting hairs that may never need to be groomed by April.

Chelsea made one change in their initial XI, with Álvaro Morata going to the bench in favor of Olivier Giroud. It proved to be a useful move, as his two assists confirmed yet again how adept he is as a target man.

While the Blues were enjoying the bulk of ball possession in the early going, dudes got a shock in the 16th minute

After a childish foul by David Luiz, Cardiff were given a set piece and launched the ball into the box, where defender Sol Bamba was there to put the Bluebirds on the board:

That goal spiced up the proceedings, but Chelsea still had issues for the next quarter-hour getting into threatening positions.

In the 37th minute, however, Giroud left the ball to Hazard, who struck a thunderbolt from outside the area:

This not only loosened up the homeboys, it rattled their visitors. The effect became obvious seven minutes later.

That'd be the 44th, when the Belgian international took a good cross from Pedro and got his trusty sidekick Giroud into the act.

Same duo, same result:

The next real opportunity appeared when Bamba -- author of Cardiff’s goal -- brought Willian down inside the box. Penalty to Chelsea at the 80th minute.

Hazard did the honors, shooting strongly into the left corner, which gave no chance for Neil Etheridge:

A mere minutes later, Spanish winger Marcos Alonso set up the game's final tally.

Dude shifted down the wing and tried a pass, but the ball deflected into Cardiff’s defense. However, the alert Willian -- who'd come off the bench in the 68th -- was there to drive home a highlighter from outside the box:

 

Maurizio Sarri still claimed to be concerned that his charges were acting too rashly on the attack, and perhaps that early Cardiff goal sobered them up for the moment.

He's also less than impressed with the Blues' defensive effort, but when the team controlled the ball for 75% of the match, they didn't have that much time to show their stuff.

 

Of course, it's his job.

OG knows their title hopes will face stiffer challenges than the newly-promoted Bluebirds.