Eden Hazard produced yet another fine performance as he scored one and assisted another as Chelsea beat Brighton 2-1 at the Amex Stadium.

Chelsea entered the match looking to build on their superb 2-0 victory over Manchester City last weekend, knowing they could get a further stranglehold on fourth place with a win and an Arsenal loss against Southampton.

However, the Blues were also coming off a difficult week away from football with some fans allegedly shouting racial abuse at Raheem Sterling as well as reports of anti-semetic chants during their Europa League clash with Vidi in midweek.

Chris Hughton’s side had won two of their last three and an upset victory over the Blues could propel them into the top half of the Premier League. A standing the Seagulls manager would have probably taken at this stage of the season had you offered it to him at the start of the campaign.

That task was made more difficult with Eden Hazard at his brilliant best for the Londoners.

The Belgian was at the heart of the Brighton problems all afternoon and did so deployed as Maurizio Sarri’s main striker as the Italian boss chose to leave Olivier Giroud on the bench as was without the injured Alvaro Morata.

Hazard played a pivotal part of Chelsea’s opening goal just 15 minutes in when his deflected shot fell back to him and he drove into the box before squaring the ball to the incoming Pedro. The Spanish international tapped the ball home into an empty net to give Chelsea the advantage.

The hosts tried to react but found it difficult to find a way through a well drilled Chelsea side. Solly March had the best chance with a well-struck 25-yard effort which was handled comfortably by Kepa.

Just after the half hour mark the visitors doubled their lead. Hazard turning goal scorer this time.

The Belgian latched onto a Willian defence-splitting pass and rifled his shot past Mathew Ryan in the Brighton goal to give Chelsea a comfortable 2-0 lead at the half.

The home fans around the stadium were tense with sections of boos for the team.

Their misery was very nearly compounded three minutes into the second half when Hazard caused a goal mouth scramble but Brighton cleared their lines.

Marcos Alonso rattled the post with a long ranger effort on the hour mark which would have put the game beyond all doubt.

Yet, just as the game looked to be getting away from the home side they struck back.

March got on the end of a Bernardo flick in the box and hooked the ball past Kepa into the goal and breath new life into Hughton’s team.

Renewed vigor entered Brighton and suddenly they had the away side rattled and the crowd thoroughly back on their side as the pendulum threatened to swing.

Referee Stuart Attwell was busy thereafter dealing with a series of full-blooded challenges.

The home side huffed and puffed with their supporters in full voice urging them to get a second goal and snatch what would have been an unlikely point.

However if there was to be a fourth goal in the game Sarri’s men looked the more likely to get it. Ruben Loftus-Cheek came off the bench and almost worked a scoring opportunity had it not been for the superb intervention of Lewis Dunk.

Alonso was fortunate to stay on the field with four minutes to go as he hauled down March when the latter was through on goal. Only a yellow was shown by Attwell.

The hosts pressed for an equaliser in the dying embers of the game. Dunk came closest for the south coast side but his injury-time header was just wide of Kepa’s post.

If there were concerns over them seeing out the game, there will be concerns over Hazard. The Belgian talisman limped off before full-time and had his ankle heavily taped with ice on it.

The referee’s final whistle was a relief to Chelsea ears as they began to look flustered.