Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois believes the arrival of Pedro will help Eden Hazard become even more of a threat after his £21m move from Barcelona.
The Spaniard made an immediate impact on his Chelsea debut, scoring one and assisting Diego Costa, and Courtois believes the winger can help develop Hazard’s talents even further.
“Pedro’s arrival is good for Eden,” Courtois said. “Whenever he [Hazard] got the ball before, you knew that two or three players would go with him to try to stop him.”
“Now we have Pedro, the defenders can’t just stay with Eden because they will know the other side is free for him to exploit, as well as for players like Willian and our top strikers too.”
Hazard has been Chelsea’s star man since his £32m move from Lille, helping the Blues win the Premier League title last season with 14 goals.
The Belgium international has often been heavily relied on with regards to creating goal-scoring opportunities for Chelsea; but after Pedro’s instant impact against West Brom, it seems as though that burden has been lifted.
The Spaniard played alongside Hazard and Willian as though he’d been at Chelsea for three years, not three days, but after watching him in La Liga during his loan spell with Atletico Madrid, Courtois was not surprised.
“We already had a good feeling from his first training session. He showed his quality straight away and was scoring goals,” said the Chelsea ‘keeper.
“Of course, he had to adapt a little because our way of training is different to Barcelona’s, but he did well from the start.”
Chelsea now face Crystal Palace this weekend after picking up their first three points of the season against West Brom, with all eyes once again on Pedro and Hazard.
