After a gutsy win at Schalke in Germany nearly a fortnight ago, Chelsea played the hosts this time around as they welcomed the Bundesliga outfit to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night. The Blues ran out comfortable 3-0 winners as they all but booked their spot in the knockout round of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16.

Despite Chelsea’s comfortable win over their opponents, what grabbed the headlines was the surprise exclusion of Eden Hazard from the team. The Belgian has been in influential form for Chelsea in recent games, and had featured for mostly all their matches. It has turned out, that the play maker was indeed punished by his manager Mourinho for skipping training under questionable circumstances on Monday.

The Portugese manager then decided to teach him a lesson by simply dropping him from the team on Wednesday night. ESPNFC revealed that he was even vocal about his decision as he honestly and straight forwardly revealed after the match, “Do I need to clear it up? Willian played fantastic… I don’t want to lie. He is not injured,”

“He forgot the time,”

“That’s the end of story. He’s a kid. Kids make mistakes and fathers have to be clever in the way they educate their sons. He didn’t play. He wanted to play. He was sad because he didn’t play. We won without him. On Saturday, he is back. So, end of story.”

He has however also spoken about his intention to immediately bring him back for Chelsea’s weekend league fixture against West Brom at home. This punishment now seems to be just a small little wake up call for Hazard who maybe was taking things a bit for granted and getting complacent, given his current position in the team.

The decision of Mourinho to drop him could very well help him get back to where he wants him, and maybe get his act together and maintain his performances for the club, which have been exceptional in recent games.