José Mourinho lavished praise on Eden Hazard's "best" performance this season after he led Chelsea to a dramatic 4-3 Barclays Premier League victory at struggling Sunderland.
Hazard set up the opening goal and then scoring twice in a frantic encounter at the Stadium of Light which helped the second-placed Blues maintain the pressure on leaders Arsenal.
Asked how he rated Hazard's individual display, Mourinho said: "The best. With me, the best.
Hazard's display at Sunderland was his "best" under Mourinho, the Portuguese said
"Maybe last season, he did something similar or even better, but with me, the best.
"The talent, we know, but the ambition from the first to the last minutes for me, it was the first time because he has a great talent, but sometimes he does incredible things and after that, he disappears from the game.
"Today, he was fantastic from the first minute, getting the ball, taking on defenders, shooting. Sometimes he creates a lot, but doesn't shoot; today the performance was fantastic.
Hazard at Chelsea
"He, [Juan] Mata and Willian, all of them, they were creative, they were dynamic, they gave to the team what we need in terms of creation in the last phase of the game."
It was Hazard who provided the 17th-minute cross from which Frank Lampard cancelled out Jozy Altidore's opener, and he then produced two sublime pieces of skill to get his own name on to the scoresheet twice, after 37 and 62 minutes.