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TODAY, 4.30 KO ROBBIE FOWLER: Hazard always turns up at Anfield and he could wreck Klopp’s title hopes

LIVERPOOL CHELSEA

HOW do I put it about Eden Hazard? Maybe like this... when Eden Hazard wants to turn up, he turns up. Which is the nicest possible way of saying he’s an, er, enigma.

Is he brilliantly inconsistent, or inconsistently brilliant? You choose – if you can work out what I’m getting at. He’s amongst the best in the world when he does turn up.

You can argue he sets such high standards that when he doesn’t always live up to them, people ask questions.

When he doesn’t turn up – which has happened for long spells in his Chelsea career, people have openly wondered whether it is because he can’t be bothered. I don’t know.

He won titles for both Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte. Yet you could easily argue he stopped playing for both of them.

Maybe he’s simply one of those players who gets bored easily. Perhaps he gets fed up and frustrated with people around him.

More simply, he may just be moody and gets affected by whatever gripe he’s got.

It did seem that he hadn’t done much for a few months, until the links with Real Madrid started up again. Suddenly he is on fire. Maybe he needs that inspiration.

It’s a nightmare for Chelsea, because they have seen what happens when he’s unhappy.

So it would be fairly pointless keeping him to the final 12 months of his contract if Hazard doesn’t want to turn up for next year. But you can bet he’ll turn up at Anfield today though. He loves the place.

I remember three years ago he had one of those ‘can’t be arsed’ sort of seasons but was incredible at Anfield. Just ran the whole game. I watched that one thinking, he’s a genius. A flawed one. Anything similar today and Liverpool’s title hopes could be gone in a blue flash of Hazard’s blurred boots.

What does Jurgen Klopp do about that? Well, don’t panic.

If there’s one player who can handle Hazard, it’s Virgil van Dijk. The thing about an ‘up-for-it Hazard’ is he’s a centre-half’s nightmare. I swear he’s quicker with the ball than without it.

That makes him almost unstoppable at times. Yet Van Dijk has an almost superhuman ability not to be beaten.