Eden Hazard isn’t Chelsea’s most important player, according to Charlie Nicholas (Picture: Getty)

N’Golo Kante and Thibaut Courtois are arguably more important to Chelsea than Eden Hazard, according to former Arsenal star Charlie Nicholas.

The Gunners great admits that Hazard is probably the most ‘valuable’ player in the Blues squad at the moment, but questioned how he’d cope without some of his team-mates bailing him out.

Discussing Hazard’s importance to Chelsea as he slowly makes his comeback from injury, Nicholas explained that attacking players like him can afford to have quiet games while defensive players cannot.

Kante pipped Hazard to the PFA Player of the Year prize last season, and Nicholas also named goalkeeper Courtois as a hugely important figure in Antonio Conte’s squad.

N’Golo Kante pipped Hazard to last season’s PFA POTY award (Picture: Getty)
Nicholas also sees Thibaut Courtois as more important than Hazard (Picture: Getty)

Asked by Sky Sports if Kante was Chelsea’s most important player, Nicholas said: ‘Yes. And even the goalkeeper comes into that category for me.

‘The reason is because you can have a quiet time, Hazard can have a quiet time, and the rest of the guys have got to do their jobs.

‘Obviously in the US you would say Most Valuable Player, he (Hazard) is in that category for Chelsea.

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‘He’s their best player. He’s a mega talent. And he’s a match-winner for them. But there’s more important players you’d have to fit in.

‘After all, we see the response, it was his first start last night of the season. Thankfully he didn’t start against Arsenal last weekend. You can see the importance of the other players, but he is their go-to player.’

Chelsea have coped well without Hazard so far this season, but seemed to lack some spark in their attack as they were held to a 0-0 draw against Arsenal last Sunday.

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