Gary Neville says he has absolutely no sympathy for Eden Hazard.

The Belgian playmaker sat on the bench as Chelsea defeated Aston Villa 2-0 on Saturday in what has been a massive fall in fortune for the 24-year-old who picked up a host of individual awards last season.

Hazard's influence guided the Blues to the 2014/15 Premier League title but he has not been the same player so far this term, and Neville feels his spot on the bench has been deserved.

"I've got no sympathy for Hazard. I expect more of him," said Neville on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football.

"The level he got to last season, you started to see a great player. In the Premier League, how many real top, world-class players could you say we have in the league?

"[Sergio] Aguero, [David] Silva you'd look at, you'd look at Hazard and put him into that level of category. There might be a couple more, I'm not saying we haven't got more, but they're the three I can think of off the top of my head.

"Hazard, there was talk last season of him getting into that Messi, Ronaldo bracket. Of course they have off periods but even in the off periods they still contribute, they score goals.

"He hasn't done that at the start of this season and he needs to pull himself out of it. Every player goes through a tough patch but he's got to do it quickly because that's what the best players do, they come out of these patches very quickly."