Hazard, no slouch himself, admits he has cast his vote for the PFA Player of the Year and it has gone to his friend and international team-mate.
The Metro write: “Eden Hazard has named Kevin de Bruyne, Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah as the three best players in the Premier League.
“However, the Chelsea star picked out his Belgium team-mate KDB as the best of the lot. ‘I think there are three [best players in the Premier League] – Kevin De Bruyne, Mohamed Salah and Harry Kane,’ Hazard told Sky Sports.
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“Hazard went on to reveal that he has cast his vote for PFA Player of the Year and picked the Manchester City player. ‘I voted for Kevin De Bruyne. He is the best. I could have also voted for Salah because I played with him and he’s my friend, but Salah is more a striker than a player.
‘Kevin has got everything. He defends, crosses the ball, assists and scores goals in big games. For me, he is the best this season.’
De Bruyne has enjoyed an incredible season for Manchester City, notching a Premier League best of 14 assists.
With Pep Guardiola’s side almost certain to win the title De Bruyne is the favourite to be named Player of the Year.
In the Independent, Vincent Kompany says the City players are so focused on their game-by-game mantra, none of them know how many games of the current campaign remained.
The skipper said: ‘After we played at Arsenal I was asking around in the dressing room about how many games were left and no one knew the answer.’
‘That goes to show how much we are all living in the here and now and not thinking about things like breaking records. If we keep doing what we are doing then we will break records, that isn’t rocket science, but we have got ourselves into this position by taking it step by step.
‘Getting record points and record goals isn’t in our minds, just winning the next game.’
To round off today’s media trawl, a couple of high profile transfer snippets.
We’ll begin with The Mirror who claim City will move for Barca legend Andres Iniesta, should the Catalan club encourage the Blues at any stage.
They write: “Pep Guardiola is eyeing a summer move for Barcelona legend Andres Iniesta as the Manchester City boss wants Spanish midfielder to end his career in England.
“Guardiola has followed developments at his old club since the £142m move for Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho - seen as a natural heir to Iniesta - was confirmed.
“Iniesta and Guardiola enjoyed huge success together at the Camp Nou and the City boss would relish the opportunity to bolster his midfield options with the World Cup winner.
The 33-year-old midfielder signed a ‘contract for life’ with the La Liga leaders in October – but sources in Spain believe that to be a non-binding agreement.
“Iniesta – who has made over 700 appearances for Barcelona - effectively replaced Guardiola when he quit the Spanish giants in 2001 and the Catalan coach would love to reunite even for a season or two.
“While all of Europe’s top clubs would take Iniesta if he became available, his previous rapport with Guardiola would place him and City front of the queue should he want a new challenge.”
Finally, City are said to have joined the pack of admiring top clubs tracking Fulham’s exciting Ryan Sessegnon.
The Sunday Mirror take up the story: “Manchester City are ready to join the race for Fulham whizz kid Ryan Sessegnon.
“Tottenham and Manchester United have done most of the running for the 17-year-old, who operates anywhere down the left.
“But now City are showing an interest and the Cottagers are bracing themselves for offers this summer whether they win promotion to the Premier League or not.
“European giants Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have also monitored the England Under-19 star’s progress and are keeping tabs on his situation.
“Sessegnon has scored 13 goals this season to help Fulham into the play-off positions.”
That’s it for today. Enjoy the game and we’ll be back with more media gossip tomorrow morning.
