Eden Hazard: I think I am ready to start every game now.

Eden Hazard has finally returned to full match fitness after three months of hard work after injuring his ankle at the end of the last season. 

Eden Hazard will start for Chelsea against Crystal Palace this afternoon and it will be his third start in a row for Antonio Conte this season after the Chelsea head coach carefully managed his return from injury. An outstanding performance against Atletico Madrid was followed by a poor and mediocre performance from the team against Manchester City but Hazard believes that Chelsea are in good condition to challenge the two Manchester clubs for the title this season.

He said:

I think the change from last season is both Manchester clubs - they are very good. They win games. I think we are almost the same.

We lost some players, some new ones arrived in the team and we lost before the international break but we are in good condition already for the title. As a Chelsea player, you just want to be on top at the end of the season, but we have to keep going and try to win every game.

We learnt a lot [from defeat to Man City]. Firstly that playing a game three days after Atletico Madrid is not easy because we gave 200 per cent there and then we arrived here for the game against a great team. When they have the ball they are very strong.

We lost Alvaro [Morata] after 20 minutes and for us, he is important as a target man who can find solutions. We shouldn't have conceded the goal and it was not a good game for Chelsea so I hope tomorrow we can have a good game against Crystal Palace.

I think the less said about the Manchester City game the better for all of us and we should focus on looking forward. In doing so, it's clear to see that the general consensus of opinion up and down the country is that the title race will be the two Manchester clubs with Chelsea well out of it with the others. It's only the middle of October and there is such a long way to go, talk of the title is far too early.

However, if Chelsea are to challenge for the title, we need to get our players fit and on form, playing well to hopefully get on another run of victories to gain the momentum that no-one could live with last season. Once everyone is fit we will then turn to the likes of Eden Hazard to perform week in, week out which is something that he still needs to do in my opinion. There are too many times when he is outstanding one week and then average the next. He needs to become far more consistent.

As he said earlier in the week, we have to remember that it has taken hard work to get back to fitness and it's something that he now appreciates. He said:

"I'm good with my ankle. I tried to do everything for me to be ready. I've played a couple of games now. I think I am ready to start every game now.

I missed three months which is not something good but at least you start to understand that football is not so easy. You need to work if you want to arrive at the top so I did three months of rehab. It is not something good but it is something that I learnt.

As a player, you just want to play and you don't want to be on the bench. I think the club did very well with me. As soon as they saw that I was ready to play, I played and I had a few games on the bench too. After a long injury, you can't go back into the team and play 90 minutes in every game so you need to go step by step." - Source: SkySports.

We've had to wait two weeks to get over the nightmare of City at home and Crystal Palace this afternoon cannot come quick enough for me. Our hosts need to be very, very wary today that this Chelsea Lion has been hurt and is about to come back fighting as we look to inflict their eighth defeat in a row this afternoon.

It's another chance for Eden Hazard to demonstrate that on his day he is our match-winner.