Thibaut Courtois kept Bournemouth at bay as Chelsea clinched a 1-0 win at Dean Court (Picture: Getty)

Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois needed to keep a clean sheet against Bournemouth on Saturday for his ‘confidence’, according to team-mate Eden Hazard.

The Blues have made a difficult start to their title defence and already find themselves nine points adrift of current league leaders Manchester City.

Antonio Conte’s side were hard to break down last season but conceded seven goals in three fixtures ahead of Saturday’s trip to Dean Court to face Bournemouth.

But a solid defensive display and Eden Hazard’s first Premier League goal of the season was sufficient to earn the three points against Eddie Howe’s side.

Chelsea have conceded too many goals this month (Picture: Getty)

‘Sometimes in football you have a team you have confidence against. In this game I had confidence and I try to play every game like this and to score,’ Hazard told Chelsea’s official website following the victory.

‘I think Thibaut needed this clean sheet for the confidence and also the defensive players won the clean sheet, but all the team deserved this, we did well defensively.

‘We want to keep the confidence high and for this we have to win every game. Now we go Tuesday to Roma to win the game and be ready for the game after.’

On Chelsea’s performance on the South Coast, Belgian playmaker Hazard added: ‘It was a good goal and important because when you play this kind of game you just need to win.

Eden Hazard’s goal was enough to separate the sides (Picture: Getty)

‘We controlled the game in the first half, the only problem was that we didn’t score.

‘We should have scored more goals, we created a lot of chances, two or three big ones in the first half, and the game would be more easy if we scored this goal but at the end the most important thing was to win and after 90 minutes we did.

‘It is not easy to control the game when you are just 1-0 but defensively we were strong, we did not concede a lot of chances so I think we deserved to win.’

Hazard’s goal was his first of the Premier League campaign (Picture: Getty)

Following the weekend’s fixtures, Chelsea remain fourth in the table, now just one point behind London rivals Tottenham who were beaten by Manchester United.

Conte’s side travel to Italy to face Roma on Tuesday evening before returning to domestic action with a clash against Jose Mourinho’s United.

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