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London - Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois says new signing Pedro will help Eden Hazard, last season's Premier League player of the year, to become even better.
Pedro, who joined from Barcelona, made an encouraging start to life at the West London club by scoring and assisting in their 3-2 win over West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.
"Pedro's arrival is good for Eden. Whenever Eden got the ball before, you knew that two or three players would go with him," Courtois, who was sent off in the champions' opening game of the season against Swansea City, was quoted as saying by the Evening Standard.
"Of course, we have other players with quality but opponents would cover Eden most of all.
"Now we have Pedro, the defenders can't just stay with Eden because they will know the other side is free for him to exploit," the 23-year-old Belgian added.
Courtois said Chelsea have already shown the character of champions this season despite managing only one win in three outings.
"On two occasions we went down to 10 men and showed really good strength, character and fight to get the points we have done so far," the Belgian international said.
"For most of the second half against West Brom we were a man down (John Terry was sent off for pulling back Salomon Rondon) and were put under a lot of pressure, but we could withstand it," he added.
Chelsea have already shipped seven goals in their first three games, having conceded only 32 goals in the whole of last season in the Premier League.
Courtois said he is confident the Blues will eventually find the right balance between defence and attack.
"Of course, the start is not what we wanted but there is still a long way to go. People are talking about the defence but last season we started off conceding a lot of goals, too," Courtois said.
"Maybe we still need to find the right balance between attacking and defending. We are playing with a really high line, so there is more danger of being hit on a counter attack," he added.
