Mykhaylo Mudryk on Hazard-ous ground at Chelsea as ‘slams’ and ‘blasts’ arrive

The knives are out for Mykhaylo Mudryk after 334 minutes of football for Chelsea. Someone should tell him how low the bar is…

The ‘cursed No.9 shirt’ is a common topic at Chelsea. Their inability to sign a goalscorer is extraordinary for a club of Chelsea’s size – as irritating for the fans as it is funny for their rivals. The longer they go without one, the more it’s discussed, the more pressure placed on the shoulders of the next ill-fated soul.

But the hex isn’t fussy; it’s not laterally bound at Chelsea. The midfield and defence is broadly immune – there have been more hits than misses – but the evil eye fixes on newly acquired forwards seemingly from the moment they arrive at Cobham until they’re stared out the door. Strikers, second strikers and wingers (inverted or otherwise) arrive with huge reputations which diminish steadily, or in some cases very quickly, in line with their confidence levels.

Chelsea is the pinnacle for any forward that arrives. Not in the sense that they achieve wonderful things, feel at home and would never want to go elsewhere, but in the sense that once they arrive at Chelsea, no team at Chelsea’s level or above would want to sign what’s left of them. Eden Hazard was the last forward Chelsea bought who thrived before being filched by a big club.

They’ve had variations on that theme. Willian, bought the year after Hazard in 2013, was an undoubted success at Stamford Bridge and many top teams would have loved him in their team at his peak – he just felt he had no reason to leave. Diego Costa was brilliant before he was forced out by Antonio Conte. Many would say Pedro was a hit, others would argue in favour of Kai Havertz. But that’s still a low hit rate across a decade. The path to obscurity is well-trodden by comparison.

Mykhaylo Mudryk isn’t yet on that path. The headline ‘slams’ and ‘blasts’ are cropping up more and more as the familiar Chelsea forward negativity takes hold. But despite that sensational click-baiting and goading of rival fans, 334 minutes of football is not enough to call for the holy water, particularly when after the first 35 minutes – his debut from the bench against Liverpool – people were suggesting Chelsea had struck gold.

“It was very Hazard-like, one of the greatest players we’ve seen in the Premier League and one of the best Chelsea players we’ve seen, Eden Hazard,” said Jamie Carragher after Mudryk’s debut.

“Picking the ball up in…