Chelsea fans have taken to the social media to lampoon UEFA for bypassing their striker Olivier Giroud to crown Eden Hazard Europa League Player of the Season.

The Blues beat London rivals Arsenal in the final in Baku, Azerbaijan at the end of May.

But fans were far from impressed with the decision given Giroud had a much bigger influence on Chelsea’s road to glory.

And it proved to be Hazard’s final competitive appearance for the club after he left for Real Madrid in the summer in a deal worth £130m.

Despite Hazard’s undeniable importance to Chelsea, experienced hitman Giroud proved to be even more influential in Europe last term.

The 32-year-old scored 11 goals in 14 games in the Europa League as he came away as the leading scorer in the tournament.

He also bagged a goal against his old club Arsenal in the final, where Hazard scored twice after hardly featuring in the early stages of the competition.

While Giroud only scored twice in 27 Premier League appearances for the Blues in the 2018/19 campaign, he proved to be prolific under Maurizio Sarri in Europe.

But UEFA’s decision to award Hazard as the tournament’s star man did not go down well, even with some Chelsea supporters, the Daily Star report.

Fans took to social media to protest Giroud being snubbed for Real’s record signing.

One posted on Twitter: “Smtn is wrong with this Uefa. Giroud was the best player by a mile. Hazard literally played under 6 matches”.

Another said: “Feel sorry for this guy (Giroud), had a top run in Europa league still favoritism prevails”.

A third said: “Yall rob giroud so much …. i love hazard but come on uefa”.

“Greatest injustice to Giroud,” a fourth added.

“Giroud should’ve won it,” another said.

One fan suggested: “Once you move to Spain, UEFA becomes nice to you”.

Another said: “Really should have been Giroud”.

One fan identified: “man had the most goals, while hazard played 3 games. his PR team is strong”.

Real Madrid forward Eden Hazard has beaten Olivier Giroud to the Europa League Player of the Season (2018/19) award.

The Belgian international propelled Chelsea to last season’s title – including scoring twice in a 4-1 final victory over London rivals Arsenal – before a €100m summer move to Los Blancos.

Former Chelsea teammate Giroud finished second and Luka Jovic, another summer arrival for Madrid, finished third after scoring eight goals in the continental competition.

Hazard could not attend the ceremony, which coincided with the group stage draw as he is recovering from injury in the Spanish capital, report Football Espana.

“Thank you very much for the prize. It is an honour for me and I want to wish all the players who play this season in the Europa League a lot of luck,” the Belgian said in a pre-recorded video, as cited by Marca.

Hazard played eight games in the Europa League and scored two goals, both in the final. In addition, he gave two assists.

Photo Credit: Daily Express

Frank Lampard has confirmed that three Key members of his team will play no part in the Premier League clash against Sheffield United this weekend.

The Blues got back on track with a win against Norwich City last weekend after an uncertain start to the campaign, with N’Golo Kante coming off the bench in the 4-0 loss to Manchester United and played the a full part in the UEFA Super Cup loss to Liverpool and the home draw against Leicester City.

An ankle problem kept Kante out of the game against Norwich, and he looked likely to miss the game against Chris Wilder’s side after being left out of the France national squad for the upcoming international break, report Football.london.

Lampard has now confirmed that the midfielder is out of the game at Stamford Bridge, along with Pedro and Antonio Rudiger.

The Spanish winger should be fine to return to action after the international break, while Rudiger is continuing his comeback from a knee injury in the Under 23s, who face Spurs on Friday evening.

“N’Golo Kante is not fit, so the continuation of his ankle problem and he won’t be travelling with the France squad either,” Lampard told reporters.

“I had a conversation with Didier Deschamps and we both agreed it’s the best thing for him. Let’s try and get him fit over the break.

“Pedro is not fit – should be the other side of the international break. Rudiger will play in the U23s tonight for the final time in terms of proper match fitness, then in serious contention after the break.

“[Kante’s injury is] a setback, of course. My focus is then to make sure he’s okay. He’s had four years of constant football at an incredibly high energy and output level. We have to get that right.

“It’s the right thing to do, we have a strong squad and the performance last week was very good. We have to be strong as a squad, and hopefully we’ll show that.”

Chelsea winger Juan Castillo has completed his season-long loan move to Dutch giants Ajax.

The 19-year-old has played most of his football for Chelsea development squad and Under-19s, helping the latter team to the UEFA Youth League final in each of the past two campaigns.

Since his move to London, Castillo has represented the Netherlands up to Under-19 level and helped the London club’s Under-18s win a number of trophies, including back-to-back FA Youth Cups in 2017 and 2018.

He originally joined the Blues from the Dutch champions in 2016.

Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante has been left out of Didier Deschamp’s 23-man squad for two upcoming Euro 2020 qualifiers, after Chelsea boss Frank Lampard implored France to drop him amid concerns over several injury setbacks.

Kante has been having injury challenges since the tail end of last season, and was subsequently benched for the Premier League opener at Manchester United after falling short in a race to be fit.

He has made a handful of appearances under Lampard so far, but missed out entirely on the trip to Norwich because of a sprained ankle picked up at Old Trafford.

The string of concerns led to the new Blues boss appealing to Deschamps to allow Kante to remain at the club and continue rehabilitation during the international break.

‘It is a difficult one. He has had four years of constantly playing,’ Lampard had said.

‘[The] injury from the Europa League final has affected his pre-season. Then he hurt himself against Man United.

‘We are trying to get him through it. The international break will be great for him to get the injury right. It would be great for everybody [if Kante stays] because he’s been playing game after game after game.’

Meanwhile, Kante’s teammates at Chelsea, Olivier Giroud and Kurt Zouma were handed a call-up to the Les Bleus squad.

France take on Albania and Andorra in successive Euro 2020 qualifiers next month, with Les Bleus currently sitting at the summit of Group H.