Olivier Giroud hopes that Eden Hazard will still be a Chelsea player come next season.

Giroud only joined the Blues in the winter from Arsenal, desperate to get more playing time ahead of the World Cup.

He made an impressive impact in the games he started, scoring a few key goals to try and help the team finish in the top four.

And he is hoping that he can continue to improve his attacking relationship with Hazard next season.

He told the Evening Standard: "Of course I want Eden to stay - who doesn't want to play with him?

"I want to carry on working on our partnership. The two of us have only been playing together a short time but we have a good relationship on the field. We play close together because that's what the manager wants us to do.

"Obviously when we are in the same areas on the pitch we can find ourselves much better.

"We like to play together because we have a good understanding, we have different qualities that complement each other. It is easy to play with him.

"Eden and I are good friends off the pitch as well. He is a nice person, he is easy to get along with. I knew him before I came to Chelsea.

"We fought for the title in France when I was at Montpellier and he was at Lille. I didn't know him personally then but I never had any doubts that we would form a good understanding.

"He has the same way of playing football and we share the same ideas."